


All That Glitters

by ellorgast



Series: Monster Socks! [12]
Category: Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon | Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon
Genre: Angst, Comedy, Community: shitennou_ai, F/M, Modern Era, Multi, Silver Millennium Era
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-11-07
Updated: 2015-12-28
Packaged: 2018-02-24 10:01:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 43,770
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2577461
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ellorgast/pseuds/ellorgast
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For the first time since returning to Mamoru as his guardians, the Shitennou must visit Tokyo, and reacquaint themselves with the senshi.  Kunzite is particularly anxious about the visit, and about meeting Venus again.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Being a substitute teacher was not bad, really. Certainly, there was the initial disorientation of wandering into a school without knowing where your classroom or even a clean washroom was located, let alone which of the kids were going to give you trouble that day. But the kids did not tend to give you a whole lot of trouble if you showed them that you were serious. And for Mr. Ward, high school substitute teacher, serious came very easily.

It was a social studies class, his preferred subject. Though he did not mind taking the others--they all had their functions, even the fluffier ones like English or art. But there was always much that Kain Ward could say about the rise and fall of civilizations, having witnessed a few in his time. Even if the teacher failed to leave him a lesson plan for the day, as was often the case, there was always a lesson to be taught about humanity’s folly.

His final class was trailing out the door, and Mr. Ward was already mentally composing the lengthy report that he would be writing for their teacher. At least one name was going to be mentioned in conjunction with inappropriate cellphone usage. The mid-afternoon sun was streaming in through the windows, casting crisp lines of shadow from each of the desks. Chalk dust drifted through the sunbeams as he wiped the board of the day’s topics.

“Mr. Ward?”

The teenager stood in the doorway, all flashy clothes and heavyhanded makeup. He was usually good with names, but he could not place this one. “I have a question about the homework.”

Like many of the female students, her outfit revealed far too many patches of skin, and he made a point of keeping his eyes trained on her forehead. “Yes?”

“I don’t know how to do it. Will you show me?”

The day must have been long, because he found himself unable to recall what, precisely, he had assigned to his class. “How to do what, exactly?”

The girl smiled sweetly. She had the most vivid red hair, big and bright and well-suited to her prominent curves. Her eyes were heavily shaded. “You know.” She nodded her head to the side, in the direction of the teacher’s desk, her dark lashes fluttering. “That.”

The desk was an ordinary wooden piece of furniture, covered in the usual cluttered stacks. Nothing about it seemed amiss. Nothing except the pair of feet laying in its shadow.

Kain rushed across the room, banging desks aside in his haste. A boy lay on the floor, sprawled unnaturally on the tile, and he did not stir when Kain knelt beside him. He was ice cold to the touch. “Hurry, go get someone. Find another teacher, or--” he tried to place the name of someone in authority, the name of anybody at all in this school, but nothing sprang to mind, “find the principal. Anybody. Go.”

“But I need you to teach me.”

He could not, in his adrenaline-filled state, conceive of such insolence. “Listen. This boy is in trouble. He needs help.”

“But you need to teach me,” the girl insisted. “How do you do it? How do you get them so cleanly?” The boy wasn’t breathing, and nothing the girl’s voice chimed made any sense. “I’ve tried to do it the same way, but it makes such a mess.” Kain fumbled in his pockets for a cellphone. He normally knew exactly where everything was, but now it eluded him, and the girl’s melodic voice continued unbroken. “You were always the best at it. You could get them in droves. Whole armies, if you wished. So please.” He glanced up at her, and her steadfastly sweet smile despite the crisis at hand, but it was not the same as before. There were fangs in that smile. “Teach me how?”

He dared to look away, back at the boy who, he already knew, was well beyond saving. His eyes, dark slivers beneath half-drawn lids, were blue.

Kain snapped awake, every nerve in his body feeling like it sizzled and cracked beneath his skin. It was a moment, as his breaths came in startled gasps, before he remembered that he was not yet a substitute teacher, not yet even a graduate of his program, that it was summertime, and furthermore, that he was outside of the country in which he would someday teach. He ticked off these facts in his mind carefully, studying the light fixture above him in the darkness. He was Kain. Teacher education student. 23 years old. Lying on a Japanese bed that was too short for his legs with a roommate on the other side of the wall who snored too loud. Commander of the Shitennou. Guard to his Prince. Not a servant of the Dark Kingdom. Not a destroyer. Though most definitely in need of a piss.

The narrow hallway outside his room was so much warmer that it felt like he was stepping into a sauna. The stiflingly humid Tokyo summer was in full swing, but he had banished it from his bedroom sometime in the night. It was a reflexive twitch when he was agitated in his sleep. Some people ground their teeth at night. Kain just turned his room into a deep freeze.

He passed Neil’s room on the way, his door practically rattling off the hinges with each grinding, engine-like snore that rumbled behind it. Kain pitied the occupants of the apartments close to theirs, wondering whether it was possible to sound-proof the brunette’s room without losing the damage deposit.

He didn’t have to check his watch to know that he was wide awake before 4:00 a.m. for the second day in a row. He could have blamed that on jet lag. His internal clock was still struggling to align itself with his days, after all, and made for an easy scapegoat. But the more obvious cause was his old friend insomnia deciding to follow him halfway across the world.

He peed in the dark, but Kain’s heightened sense of night vision prevented him from ignoring the fact that Neil had already trashed their shared bathroom, after only three days of inhabiting it. Like a dog that had to mark every single tree, that man seemed incapable of going anywhere without leaving evidence of his presence, often in the form of wet towels and dirty laundry piled on the floor. How could one man produce so many dirty clothes in such a short span of time?

He left the lights off in the kitchen, as well, when he poured himself a glass of milk. Lights were one of those things that he used only as a courtesy to other people. He eyed the cold glass that he set on the counter and thought that the worst part about insomnia was that there was not enough for a person to fill their time with at 4:00 in the morning. And the worst part about getting it on the wrong side of the world was that all the comfortable fallbacks became unavailable. His bonsai was weathering the summer without him, relying on a kind neighbor to check up on it once in a while (with strict instructions not to overwater it). His drums were locked in his room at home, and anyway it was bad enough avoiding using them during the early hours for his roommates’ sakes without concerning himself with an apartment building full of people. His classes were over for the semester, leaving him nothing to write or study or read ahead on. Jaden, his most restless of companions, was staying in another apartment with Sasha--it was simply not feasible trying to find a four-bedroom apartment for the summer. And Mamoru... was at home. Where he should have been. And so here Kain was, alone at almost 4:00 a.m. in a strange city, with only one option available to help him shake off the dream that had so abruptly awoken him.

As he laced up his sneakers, he thought of how running had become something that he and Mamoru did together. He thought of the first time they had run together, how Kain had watched his every movement so carefully, uncertain yet whether this was the prince he was searching for. How it had become their reconnection point, the time in which they could always be confident of seeing each other, twice a week, in the early dawn hours before they had to part and begin their separate days. 

But Mamoru was now asleep in a penthouse two buildings down, almost certainly curled around a blond princess and having absolutely no intention of leaving his domestic comfort to suffer in the chill of a pre-dawn morning. He would not be wandering out of bed until the morning had almost expired, sheepishly pretending that this was an entirely natural thing to be doing, and had nothing to do with the girl who was wearing one of his shirts as a jacket. 

And that was how it should have been. Mamoru spent all year pining after Usagi, not at all unlike a young prince in a previous life who spent his nights sighing up at the Moon. It was right that he should have this time with her now. Even if it meant a summer in Tokyo. A summer of insomnia and small apartments and... senshi.

Kain squared his shoulders as he stood at the door. Sneakers on, iPod in hand. He was going to be doing an awful lot of running this summer.

***

Artemis made an indignant little kitty grunt as something flumped down on the bed beside him, disturbing his rest. He burrowed his nose further beneath his curled paws, seeking blissful warmth. Alas, a light flicked on, determinedly glowing through his white fur, and nothing he did could hide his eyes completely from its glare.

He cautiously opened one set of eyelids first, then another. As his eyes adjusted to the light, he saw that his comfortable haven on the corner of the bed was now surrounded by piles of dresses and shirts, many of them still dangling haphazardly from their hangers. Mina stood in the middle of the floor--or rather she danced in the middle of the floor, doing that little “tight clothes” wiggle with a dress still over her head and her PJ bottoms on. Eventually she succeeded in pulling the snug dress past her shoulders and tugged it down as far as it would go (which was not very far, in Artemis’s humble opinion, though he was a cat and a male and therefore not a very good judge of these matters). She stood in front of the mirror, gave a little experimental pose, though her flannel bottoms with the ducks all over them made the dress look a bit lumpy in places.

“Mina. What are you doing?”

“Finding a dress. What do you think? Too formal?”

“Too formal for what?”

“What else? Makoto’s party, you fluff-head!”

“Makoto’s party.”

“Yes.”

“Tonight?”

“Exactly!”

Artemis swiveled his head around to read the little Hello Kitty alarm clock beside the bed. “Minako. It’s seven o’clock.”

“No, the party’s at five.”

“Minako. It is seven o’clock in the morning.”

The blond shimmied back out of the dress and, clothed only in a bra and flannel bottoms, went digging in her closet again. “So what? What do you think of blue?”

“I don’t know, Mina. I’m colorblind, and I’m a cat. But you have about ten hours in which to decide.”

“Not good enough.” She threw the dress--it was probably blue--down on the bed. “These things have to be planned in advance, Artemis. I can’t just throw something on at the last minute!” 

“Why not? It’s just a party, Mina. At Makoto’s. She throws them about every two weeks these days.”

The girl rolled her eyes dramatically and shoved the dress over her head. “Men.”

“Yes, yes. We’re all chauvinistic blockheads with no sense of the importance of style. I don’t know why you even try to get through to us, honestly.”

It was a joke, and not an uncommon one between them. Sharing close living quarters with an adolescent girl through her formative years had not been without some extremely awkward moments. Mostly for Artemis. He knew far more than he ever needed or wanted to know about the human female reproductive cycle. 

Instead of laughing or carrying the joke further, Mina impatiently tugged the dress back off, balled it up, and threw it on the floor. “I don’t know, either.” For one terrible moment, the bubbly girl who almost always had an arsenal of smiles at the ready seemed to shut down in front of him. Shoulders hunched, arms drawn close, she closed in on herself. But she seemed to remember herself quickly, and turned, a little too deliberately, her back to Artemis to rifle through her closet again. “A dress isn’t the way to go,” she announced in an overly light voice. “Girls wear dresses. I need to look capable.”

Clearly this was a matter that extended well beyond his ward’s vanity and occasional eccentricities, and demanded Artemis’s full attention. He sat up straight, carefully avoiding the heaps of clothes clustered around him. “Somebody indicated to me that the meeting at the airport could have gone better.”

Minako made a skeptical snort from within the depths of her closet. “Who said that? Usagi and Mamoru had the most perfect romantic comedy reunion imaginable. She ran through the crowd screaming his name, tripped over a piece of luggage and went flying onto the tile. Then he scooped her up and she kissed him like she didn’t even notice she was hurt and everyone in the entire terminal was watching and I half expected them to break into applause.” She emerged from the folds of clothing with a shimmery top. “So of course that broke the ice, because none of the guys were used to Usagi so they thought she was hilarious. Neil seems really sweet,” she added wistfully, running her fingers over the silky fabric. “He made everyone feel comfortable right away, even Ami. And Sasha loved my shoes!” She giggled. “The green ones. He loved them so much! And I loved HIS shoes!” 

She tugged the shirt on, and held her hair up experimentally in the mirror. “It’s too bad Rei didn’t come, I think it would have done her good to see that. Just how normal and nice they all are. And how adorable Jaden is.”

Artemis was used to being the patient one, but he began to feel that Mina would talk herself in circles all day if she could. “So how about the other one?”

She let her hair drop, one immense tumble of unbrushed morning fluff falling across her back. “I don’t know.”

This was hardly the expected answer. Minako was a reader of people. She could judge from a distance whether a strange couple walking hand-in-hand were in love or merely putting on a show. She chose her classes at the local university based on five-minute meetings with her professors. If he wanted, he could have asked her to describe the character of all Mamoru’s other companions at length, after only this brief meeting. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, I don’t know. He doesn’t--didn’t--talk. Not once. He wouldn’t even say hello, or... anything. He didn’t even react to Usagi. It’s like he’s... a... wall. Just this big blank walking wall. It’s like somebody decided that Mamoru needs a wall wherever he goes, just to... block the wind or shade him from the sun or something and that’s what he got.”

“I think your metaphor is unravelling a bit, there.”

“My metaphor is fine! It’s everything else that sucks!”

“You know, some people simply don’t do well with hellos.”

“Or goodbyes or--or anything else. Anyway, you’re distracting me from the real issue, Artemis! What am I going to do with my hair?”

“If you’re trying to get somebody’s attention...”

“Putting it up will make me look more elegant, and show off my neck. But guys have a thing for hair...”

“I don’t think you really have to try at all.”

“I could do a sort of half-updo thing.”

“In fact, I would be very surprised if you did not already have it.” Artemis paused to yawn--he was very much in need of his morning nap--and was rather surprised that Mina did not fill the silence with more babbling. “He’d, well, have to be blind.”

“Walls are blind,” Minako muttered.

He stretched. The sun would be making its way around the living room windows by now, and those sunbeams were not going to be sleeping in themselves. “And deaf, I’m sure. They must sleep so peacefully.”

***

By the time Neil dragged himself out of bed, Kain had gone for a long run, come home, sorted his and Neil’s dirty laundry, scrubbed down every surface in the bathroom, showered, dressed, made a protein-heavy breakfast, eaten a protein-heavy breakfast, washed the dishes, scrubbed the stovetop, and disinfected the sink. He was almost finished reviewing the news on his laptop with a third cup of coffee when Neil skulked into the kitchen wearing only a pair of briefs. He mumbled an incoherent greeting as he headed straight for the coffee.

Kain felt like an infected beast had just invaded his immaculate kitchen. “Where are your clothes?”

“S’too hot.”

“Does that impede the wearing of a pair of shorts?”

“My balls’r sweating.”

Kain immediately lost the desire to consume any more of his coffee. Or anything. Ever. “Then do us all a favor and refrain from sitting down before taking a shower.”

Neil promptly sat in a kitchen chair. Kain made a mental note to bleach it thoroughly. “Fucking jetlag.”

“Indeed.”

The brunette looked around suspiciously. “Have you... been bleaching?”

“I realize that the smell of a sanitary room is foreign to you, and I apologize for the discomfort.”

“Kain. It’s nine o’clock in the morning. Who cleans before nine o’clock?” 

“Evidently, someone who doesn’t leave his dirty underwear on the bathroom floor.”

“No, seriously. How long have you been awake?”

“A while.”

Neil stared at him in a manner that approached lucidity compared to his normal morning state. “Jetlag, right?”

Kain sipped his coffee, before remembering that he was supposed to be too disgusted to. “Yeah. Jetlag.”

Now that he was no longer the only conscious being in the apartment, the morning began to approach normalcy. Neil drifted into the living room to watch bizarre Japanese game shows while he drank a bunch of sugar and cream with a dash of coffee for flavor and ate dry cereal by the handful. Kain followed with his laptop, and made a mental note never to sit in the particular area of the couch that Neil was occupying again. “So what’s the plan for today, commander? You coming with Jaden and me to gawk at the sights like tourists all afternoon?”

“If we must.”

“It’s that, or going with Sasha to Shibuya, and while normally I would be happy to stare at hot fashionable Japanese ladies all day, I think I’ll pass on the geeking out over designer brands. Think we could convince Mamoru to see the light of day?” Kain cast him a skeptical look. The half-naked brunette rolled his eyes, and shoved a fistful of cereal in his mouth. “Right. Lucky bastard.”

“I don’t know what you’re complaining about. Women find you so...” Kain paused as Neil dropped cereal down his belly and began to pick it out of the waistband of his underwear “attractive.”

Neil popped the rescued cereal in his mouth and crunched it up while speaking. “Your attempts at sarcasm, while valiant, are overwhelmed by the fact that I have gotten laid more times in a week than you have in a lifetime. Speaking of which, who do you think is the hottest girl we’ve met so far?”

“Must you quantify it?”

“It’s just offering an opinion, man. Usagi’s cute, and she’s got that whole ‘taken by my liege’ aura of forbidden going on. The Mercury-one’s got the cute librarian thing nailed, and you know how nasty librarians are in the sack.”

“I’m sure if all your ideas about women are informed by porn--”

“You say that like I haven’t banged a librarian before. A Harvard librarian.”

“Did she still have her own teeth?”

“You’re hi-fucking-larious. You should deliver some of your comedy routine to the girls. Oh wait, that would require you to speak words to them.” Kain did not dignify that with a response, so Neil continued, scratching at his furry belly as he did so. “Minako clearly wins on sheer sex appeal. She’s got all sorts of curves and knows how to carry them. It would take a spectacular leap of hotness for the other senshi to outdo her.”

“I seem to recall both Mars and Neptune being widely renowned for their beauty.” Kain paused. “I’m not having this conversation.”

The brunette grinned. “Yes you are. It’s Venus, right? You think she’s hot.”

“You may believe what you like on the matter.”

“Then--and I know this may be a difficult concept for you--it might help, I mean girls generally prefer it, if you look them in the eye and say things. It helps them to know that you like them as more than an inconsequential fixture that happens to occupy the same general space as you.”

“I talk to them.”

“Yeah. I’m sure at the airport the other day, your telepathic signals were received loud and clear.”

Kain groaned. “Neil, do you remember what we’re doing here?”

“Pretty sure I do, bro. We’re here because Mamoru’s waited months to do the nasty with his girl and he insisted on flying halfway across the world for it. And we can’t trust him not to get killed along the way, so we’re here with him. So what we’re doing here, commander, is the same damn thing we’re always doing, which is guarding our prince.” Neil stretched out on the couch, all hairy legs and muscles and briefs that did not do nearly as good of a job of containing him as they should have. “Which doesn’t mean, by the way, that we can’t have fun while we’re doing it. And it doesn’t mean that saying hello is gonna kill you.”

“Be that as it may, tonight, at this party we’re supposed to attend--”

“I expect that you have orders for me.”

Kain considered how to approach this matter delicately. Calling something an ‘order’ outside of a life-or-death situation was the best possible way to get Neil to do the opposite of what you wanted. “No, it’s simply a... request. Being that this will be our first time meeting all of the princess’s inner court, it would be helpful if you would do what you are generally very good at.”

“You’re gonna have to be more specific, because the list of things I am very good at is beyond measure. Although the world unanimously agrees that eating and raw animal sex appeal are very high on that list.”

“I would like you to endear yourself to the senshi.”

The brunette’s eyes narrowed. “There must be some catch that I am missing, here. It sounded like you just told me to make a bunch of hot girls like me.”

“Look, this is Mamoru’s home. It’s where his princess lives. He’s going to be spending a lot of time here, and by definition that means that we will be spending a lot of time here. And for better or worse, this is also the home of all the senshi. This is their stronghold. If we can’t win their trust immediately, it’s going to make things that much more difficult for all of us.”

Neil chewed slowly, eyeing Kain with a hint of mistrust. “So by putting myself in the good graces of pretty ladies... I’m doing my duty as a Shitennou?”

“Essentially, yes.” Kain looked over his barely civilized companion. “If, of course, you’re up to the task.”

“Oh, I can endear myself to them. I can endear myself all night long. You know, since it’s my duty and all.” Neil took that opportunity to scratch his balls, a complicated gesture that involved splaying his legs on the couch in Kain’s general direction.

Kain repressed the urge to shudder. Some sights could never be unseen. 

“In that case, I’m starting with Venus.” Neil was grinning, but Kain could tell that he was serious by the sharp look in his eyes. “You know, since she makes the most tactical sense.”

The commander gave him a long look. “Do what you need to do.”


	2. Chapter 2

To say that Makoto dearly loved her friends would be an understatement. They were not _like_ family to her--that would suggest that they were some flimsy imitation of a more real, authentic, and original concept. No, Makoto Kino had no family to speak of, had not for a very long time, and so in a very literal sense, her friends were her family. It would be fair to say that she worked harder at those friendships than any other. When Ami was pulling too far into her studies, it was Makoto who drew her out with thinly-veiled study sessions that more closely resembled a tea social. When Usagi was feeling lonely with Mamoru’s absence, it was Makoto who appeared at her door with fresh-baked cookies and a Disney film. When Minako needed to flee her mother’s crushing gaze, it was Makoto’s couch that she fled to. And when Rei needed a calming place--not the strict calm of the shrine, full of work and devotion, but a sort of calm that comes from curling up beside a lavender plant with a banana muffin and a cup of hazelnut tea--this was always the place where she landed. 

She loved them. They were everything to her. But that did not mean that she did not also sometimes want to throttle them.

“Mina, for the last time, don’t touch!”

Rather than recoiling at the command, Minako’s hand plunged right into the bowl of chocolate buttercream frosting. “What’s the big deal?” She swiped the gooey mixture off her finger with her tongue. “You’ve got enough food here to feed an army. Multiple armies. For a week.”

The brunette rescued the bowl of frosting before her dear friend could have another go at it, and placed it on top of the fridge where it was slightly less reachable. “No, I’ve hopefully got enough food here to feed ten people. Five of which are males. Have you seen how much food guys can eat?”

“Probably not as much as Usagi.”

“Don’t bet on it. I’ve got her to contend with, too.” She swatted Mina’s hand away from a tray of hot tarts filled with molten cherry filling, fresh from the oven. “So hands off the sweets!”

“You get so snippy when you’re stressed.” There was a pause, while Makoto scooped the buttercream into a pastry bag. “Have a cookie. That’ll cheer you up.”

The brunette dared to glance up, and--sure enough--Minako already had the first two points of a star-shaped sugar cookie in her mouth. She took a breath, ready to protest, but released it in a defeated groan, instead. “Fine. Have the cookie. Have two. Just don’t touch my chocolate cake.”

“Noted. Hands off the cake. Is there anything I can touch? I am technically here to help and not just to eat all your goodies.”

Could have fooled me, Makoto thought, and then immediately felt guilty for the snarky tone of her internal voice. Normally she would find Minako’s behavior endearing, and she welcomed the companionship in the kitchen. The blonde was right; the stress of preparing for this party all day was getting to her. That, and the storm clouds building on the horizon. “You could chop some vegetables, if you like,” she conceded. 

“It’s so cute how you’re trusting me with the job that is the most difficult to mess up.” Her friend’s tone was light, teasing. Mina was surely well aware by now that Makoto could be a little... territorial about her kitchen.

“There is a cauliflower in the fridge. Knock yourself out.”

Mina retrieved the vegetable in question, while Makoto began to pipe icing onto the cake. “So I know you love throwing parties and impressing us all with your culinary mastery, but why’s this got to be such a big deal? I mean, were the tarts necessary?”

Makoto carefully twisted the piping bag to maintain a steady pressure. She had practiced piping several times in the past few months, and she was beginning to feel more confident in her ability to produce intricate swirls along the cake’s edge. “Well the cake is for Mamoru, as a welcome back. But I thought not everybody likes chocolate cake, but Rei loves those cherry tarts. And then I thought maybe tarts weren’t enough, so... well, cookies it is.”

Mina pulled a stool up to the counter that divided the kitchen from the living room. “You,” she said firmly, pointing a paring knife at Makoto, “are a baking overachiever. I now dub thee Overbaker.”

That comment might have actually won a giggle from her, if she were not so focused on maintaining a steady hand. She finished the row of swirls around the edge of the cake, and paused to brush away a stray curl with the back of her hand. “I just... I know we’re not all quite agreed on this idea of welcoming them into our group, but I think it would be really nice if we all managed to get along somehow.”

“And you’ll accomplish this with cookies?”

“Well. They can’t hurt, can they?”

“Usagi’s cookies can. But your cookies? They could probably win world peace, easily.”

The brunette felt herself relax, just a little. She glanced at Mina as she washed the frosting from her hands, and could not help but notice how the little florets of cauliflower had been arranged like a bouquet, and was now in the process of being artfully dotted with carrot sticks and broccoli. The girl couldn’t cook rice in a rice maker, but trust her to win marks in presentation. “Alright, so spill. You aren’t here just to get in my way and eat all my cookies.”

“Why do I need a reason? I’m here to keep my best friend company!”

“Was Rei unavailable?”

“That’s cold. Also Rei doesn’t want to talk right now.”

“You mean that Rei doesn’t want to talk about this.”

“Close enough. So Mako, how would you get the attention of someone who doesn’t appear to notice you?”

The brunette looked her over. Mina had arrived already dressed for the evening, in a pair of the tiniest black shorts ever. The semi-opaque black stockings she wore underneath should have made the shorts a bit more modest, but the fact that they stopped mid-thigh only emphasized the sheer length of her legs. Her glittery top hugged her waist but had folds that fell loose over her bust, emphasizing her hourglass figure. Her hair was half done up in an updo, forming an amazing golden waterfall of curls all down her back. She would not possibly garner more attention if she put a flashing red light on her head. “You mean, like, other than be you?”

Mina giggled. “Let’s pretend that that isn’t enough.”

“Well...” Makoto picked up the plate of star-shaped cookies, and set them on the counter where Mina could reach. “I’d bake him cookies.”

“Can I take all of your cookies and pretend I baked those?”

“I don’t think it works that way. What happens when he wants you to make more?”

The blonde picked up a star and nibbled on the end. “I’ll distract him with cleavage.”

“That’s your answer to everything.”

“Well cookies are your answer to everything.”

Makoto opened the fridge and pulled out the small bowl of white buttercream she had set aside. “Do you think it would be too, well, girly to put roses on the cake?”

Mina raised an eyebrow. “This is a cake for Mamoru, isn’t it?”

Outside the window, there was thunder. Minako might not have been able to hear it quite yet, it was so far off, but Makoto could feel it in her spine. The brunette eyed the frosting again. “I’ll see if I have enough red pigment.”

***

A single-bedroom Japanese apartment had never really been constructed with the intent to host a party of ten people, but clearly Jupiter was determined to make it work. Extra chairs had been brought in, and circled as close against the walls as the living room would accommodate. The windows had been pushed open to invite an evening breeze, but even with this effort, the apartment soon felt overly warm and humid, and Kain found that he could easily devote all of his time to keeping the little ice cubes in his glass from melting. He gave the ice cubes a moderate 30% of his attention, while the other 70% kept its focus on the room at large. He had chosen the optimal position for this purpose--a chair tucked in the corner against the wall, where he could keep an eye on the proceedings without needing to be directly involved in them. It helped that Mamoru’s chair was in front of his, within easy reach. Not that Kain really thought that he was required to stand guard tonight, in a room that presently held ten of the most powerful beings on the planet, but guarding his prince was part of his routine, and there was comfort in that routine.

With a shower, shave, and clean clothes, Neil almost looked presentable. Kain had watched him amp up the charm the moment he entered the apartment and planted a dramatic kiss on Usagi’s hand, and the sway he held over the room had not wavered since. At least, the majority of the room. Mars seemed intent on barely acknowledging anybody with testosterone. Jupiter was hardly present at all, emerging from the kitchen only to occasionally place yet another tray of hors d'œuvre on the overcrowded table. Otherwise, Neil’s bombastic mannerisms had command over the hearts of all who were present. Including, it seemed, that of Venus.

She would have stood out among her friends even if she wore only a burlap sack. Now, beside Usagi and Mercury’s light summer skirts, Mars’s conservative suit, and Jupiter’s pink apron, the entire room seemed to bend around her, as though she commanded even gravity. And when she laughed with Neil, she commanded him, as well. Kain could see it, the subtle ways in which the brunette was out-maneuvered. The way in which she initiated contact first, steadying herself with a lingering hand on his bicep as she giggled. The way that she ate her cherry tart, slowly and sensually. 

He kept everyone in his sight. Sasha, who seemed oddly fixated on the senshi of water from the moment she entered the room, determinedly trying to hold her shy gaze. Jaden, talking endlessly to any who would listen. His prince, practically oblivious to the fact that he was at a party, looking almost bewildered any time somebody other than his princess addressed him. But the one who continued to draw his eye was the one who had taken up residence in the chair beside Neil, her stocking feet drawn up beneath her, golden hair like the sun set against the starry sky of her glittery shirt, laughing with all the charm that her noble birth granted.

Through the window beside him, the air felt as warm and thick with humidity as it did inside. Somewhere in the distance was thunder.

***

She cursed walls and their insufferable habit of being behind things, just out of reach, because heaven forbid that Mamoru Chiba sit at a party without a goddamned wall behind him. Minako vengefully snapped the points off a sugar cookie while she formulated a plan. She needed to get Mamoru out of his chair, which would require getting Usagi out of her chair, which would require both of them to stop making eyes at each other for one brief moment. She was just in the process of deciding whether to convince Jaden to start calling for the chocolate cake to be brought out early, or perhaps create a mishap with said cake that would send both royals running to either help with the cleanup process or simply salvage what could be saved of the chocolate goodness, when somebody politely cleared his throat beside her.

The brunette man who she remembered as Neil gave her a lazy smile, one that no doubt made many a heart back home flutter. “Are you going to eat that poor cookie, or simply torture it into submission?”

He wore his hair long, just like the barbarian warrior she remembered in a long-distant life, when he’d easily hefted an axe too heavy for her to even drag along the ground with both hands. His face was not so weathered as it seemed in those memories, but his chin seemed to bear the same rough stubble, and she wondered whether the Nephrite of both lives had emerged from the womb with a 5 o’clock shadow. There was an intensity in his dark cocoa eyes, tempered by a humor that glimmered on the surface. He reclined in the chair beside her, his voice disarmingly warm. “Because if you are going to persist in wasting that precious cookie, I’m afraid I’m going to have to confiscate it.”

“Oh really? Are you an authority on cookies?”

“Of course. I’m the highest authority on the ethical treatment of all forms of baked goods. And it looks to me like you’re violating a number of cookie rights at the moment.” He leaned in, emitting a cloud of musky aftershave that lingered long in the sticky heat. “And if you do not desist in pouting at that tortuously crumbled treat, drastic measures may be taken.”

The giggle rose immediately from her throat, and Mina felt ridiculous for brooding in a room full of people. She covered the slight social embarrassment with a wide smile. “And what would be the punishments for such crimes against baking?”

“Likely a few lashings.” He grinned, clearly pleased at having made her laugh. “To start.”

Mina gasped dramatically. “I’m so sorry, officer, I swear this is my first time! Why don’t you just take these with you, and we’ll forget it ever happened?” She held out her small plate, still laden with the broken cookie and two in-tact ones.

Neil folded his arms across his broad chest, adopting a glare. “An officer of the law would never accept such bribes.”

Her hand went to her own chest. “Who said anything about a bribe? Now, if I were to place these cookies close to you for their own protection, and they happened to disappear while I was out of the room, now that would be a different matter, wouldn’t it?”

He scrutinized her. “I accept your logic. But must you really leave the room so soon?”

“But if I’m to be arrested, I must make my getaway somehow!”

Neil eyed her up. “Alright, missy. I’ll let you off with a warning if you just answer me one question.”

Mina braced herself. Was this flirting going somewhere? Did he have something personal in mind? Would he probe her for secrets about the senshi? Something they weren’t ready to reveal? 

The brunette took a breath. “You know those subway transit passes? The green ones? How the hell do those work?”

She was so relieved that Minako laughed outright. “Transit passes?”

“Yeah, these.” Neil shifted to pull out his wallet, wafting his aftershave scent in her general direction, and showed her the offending scrap of paper. “I paid for it and everything, but that damn machine wouldn’t let me through. I swear it snapped shut just to taunt me.”

“Where were you trying to go?”

“Shinjuku.” 

He said it with a straight face, but Mina could not help giggling once again. “You... you weren’t trying to get to Kabukicho, were you?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he replied stoically. “Maybe I just really wanted to get some shopping done.”

“Yes, I’m sure.” She tugged on the sleeve of his t-shirt. “Clearly you are much more a connoisseur of fashion than you are a fan of the local red light district.”

“I happen to have very sophisticated tastes.”

She handed the ticket back. “Anyway, if you were trying to get to Shinjuku, I think that is on the Toei line. These are Metro line tickets.”

He checked them again. “Oh. Those are two different things?”

“They’re owned by different companies, so the passes aren’t transferable.”

“Huh, well that explains a lot. You’ll have to excuse my country ways. I’m from Canada, you see, which has a population of about twenty five people and eight hundred wild moose.”

On her other side, Jaden emitted a groan of disbelief. “Don’t listen to him. He spent part of his childhood growing up in Vancouver. It has a population of over a couple million.”

“Yeah, and Tokyo has what, twelve million people?” He grinned, all charm. “All I’m saying is that I am an uncivilized outsider in need of a tour guide. Would you, a knowledgeable local, happen to know where I could find such a person?”

Mina pretended to think. “Would I happen to know anybody who has lived in Tokyo their entire lives and would be willing to guide a gentleman around town? I guess that depends on where you’d like to visit.”

“You think I’m a gentleman?”

“Sorry, did I say gentleman? I meant pushy cookie authority.”

“And don’t you forget it.” Neil scooped up the crumbled sugar cookie that he had stolen and shoved the entire mass of pieces into his mouth. “And furthermore, I--” he paused, chewed, and his eyes grew wide. “These cookies...”

Mina watched him with some amusement. It was easy to take for granted the euphoria induced by Makoto’s baking when she had been so spoiled by it for the past few years. Watching the uninitiated experience it for the first time was always a treat. “Good, huh?”

Neil looked like he might have been experiencing an otherworldly vision. “They’re... I... wow.” He swallowed, and looked for a moment as though he was watching a film about dying puppies. “I’m sorry, these cookies are making me a bit emotional.”

She patted his arm. “They’ve been known to do that. Do you need a moment?”

He pretended to wipe a tear away. “No, I... I think I’m good.”

“Maybe you’d better refrain from trying the tarts, for now.”

“There’s tarts?!”

“Hold on, I think Usagi might have swiped the plate.” Mina stood, and because Neil was being so appreciative of her, because he was doing so much to lift her mood, she leaned deliberately against him as she did. Hand on his shoulder, solid and muscular, leg brushing his own. She could feel the heat between them, sticky and overly warm in the summer weather, but not unpleasant. Jaden was bounding across the center of the room, momentarily blocking her view from Usagi perched on the arm of Mamoru’s chair. It was in that moment, when Jaden was almost between them, when their view of one another was almost obscured, that she caught two grey eyes, hard as granite, watching her from behind Mamoru. She could feel those eyes, sharp as steel, graze over her every point of contact with Neil. 

Oh.

Time seemed to slow, seemed to bring her back to another day, another lifetime, when those same eyes met hers, cold and calculating, through the curtain of ivy that hid a private garden from view. It had been a warm summer night then, too, and the scent of flowers--not the thick, cloying scent of Venus’s blooms, but light and brittle--had filled the air. She had needed to retrieve her princess, but this man, barely visible through the green vines, had stood in her way. She had known, from the moment she saw those eyes the color of the ancient stone walls around them, that this man would prove to be a formidable opponent. 

The moment passed, Jaden no longer stood between them, and the silver-haired man in the corner was already looking elsewhere, as though nothing had happened, as though no such familiarity had been felt by him. 

Minako straightened, a little. It had been barely a moment. A moment was enough for Aino Minako to make a decision. 

Alright, then.

Her fingers drifted down Neil’s shoulder to his arm. It was subtle, how she caressed his heated skin through his t-shirt, but enough, she knew, to get his attention. “Oh look, I see them. Let’s hurry before Usagi inhales them all!” 

She dragged him across the room. Past Rei, looking bored and slightly combative. Past Sasha and Ami, both trying to pretend that undressing each other with their eyes was the exact opposite of what they were doing. Jaden and Usagi were animatedly talking--it seemed both blonds had finally discovered someone who could keep up with the other’s rapid thought process. “Usagi!” Mina called, her fingers wrapped tightly around Neil’s wrist.

“Did you steal all the--oh, there they are!” It was deliberate, how she kept herself tethered to Neil while she leaned over Usagi to reach the plate, so that he could keep her balanced, feel like he was showing off some of his strength for her. She retrieved a cherry tart, turned, and presented it to him. “Try it,” she ordered lightly.

He laughed. “Another bribe?”

“No bribes. I don’t bribe. I give gifts that coincidentally make people do as I like.”

He obliged, shoving the entire tart into his mouth as he had with the cookie. The effect was, naturally, exactly as desired. The brunette appeared to be having an otherworldly experience.

Minako smiled sweetly at him. She was aware of the fact that they were standing right in front of Usagi and Mamoru, that another pair of eyes had nowhere to look except at them. She didn’t check on that, though. She kept her gaze steadfastly on the brunette across from her. “Good, right? I helped Mako make them.” Of course, ‘helped’ was a subjective word, but she was sure that Neil would agree that actively not eating the tarts as soon as Makoto baked them qualified as helping. 

She picked up another tart and nibbled at it, much more slowly, letting the sweet cherry filling linger at her lips. “What do you think?”

“I don’t really even like cherries, but those...”

Usagi chimed in, ever eager to both be helpful and discuss food. “Mako-chan’s the best cook! Everything she makes is unbelievable!”

Neil looked down at Usagi, which was not what was supposed to happen at all. “Mako? I don’t think I’ve met her yet.”

“Makoto’s busy right now,” Mina added. “Let’s not bother her. You wanted to see the city?” She drew herself up to her full height, which, in her stocking feet, was still a full head shorter than the brunette. “Have you ever seen Tokyo at night?”

His attention was drawn back, his lazy smile returning. “Never. Why?”

“Tokyo Tower looks fantastic when it’s all lit up. You can just see it from Mako’s bedroom window. It’s phenomenal with the lights off. Would you like me to show you?”

The brunette eyed her for a moment, before his smile slowly spread into a wider grin. “Show me anything you want to, sweetheart.”

She took him by the hand and, without a glance in either direction, led him from the bright living room to the darkened bedroom.


	3. Chapter 3

The bedroom door across from him snapped shut with an oddly sharp click, audible even through the loud conversation that Jaden and Usagi were carrying. Kain downed the rest of his water. The small, pathetic remains of an ice cube dropped onto his tongue, and was gone in a single crunch of his teeth. He stood, and skirted Mamoru’s chair, giving him a pat on the shoulder as he did. 

He entered the kitchen, to the sudden crash of pots hitting the floor. A tall woman, muttering a string of highly unladylike curses, bent to pick the offending pots up, the hem of her pink apron trailing on the floor. She stood, a pot in each hand, and startled at the sight of Kain in the doorway. “Oh! Sorry, I was just--” she dumped the pots unceremoniously in the sink, and rushed to brush a stray auburn curl from her face. The humidity had clearly done a number on her hair, which was straining at the elastic containing it in a ponytail. She wore only a tank top and a pair of those short pants that girls liked so much under her apron, but the kitchen was even hotter than the rest of the apartment, and she looked like a wilted flower with her hair curling too much in some places and hanging limp in others. “Do you need something?”

Kain lifted his empty glass. “I was just hoping for some more ice water.” He knew that Neil had left some beer chilling in the fridge, but he did not have intentions of drinking right now. 

“Oh, of course! I’ve just got tap water, but I have a filter system, it’s really nice, I swear, the water tastes great. And the ice is--well, you know where to find the ice, of course.”

Kain felt sorry to have flustered her. “Of course. I’m sorry to get in your way.”

“No, not at all!” She waved her hand as though she had only been occupied in something trivial, but a cursory glance around the kitchen said that this was not at all the case. The kitchen was far too small for the amount of projects that she was engaged in. Sloppy mixing bowls, crumby baking sheets, measuring cups and spoons seemed to be stacked everywhere. Bags of sugar and flour were shoved into the few available surfaces, while the sink was filled to the brim with dishes. A light dusting of flour coated everything.

She seemed to wither a bit further as she realized just what he was seeing. “You really shouldn’t see it like this. I’m not normally such a disaster.” 

“You don’t know what a kitchen disaster is until you have seen our kitchen after Jaden’s gotten his hands on the blender.”

The comment seemed to relieve the strain in her shoulders a bit. “Sorry, I’m Kino Mak--ah, Makoto Kino.” She carefully said her name in the western order, despite speaking Japanese. “I guess we haven’t properly introduced ourselves yet.”

“You’ve been busy. Kain Ward.” He gave her a polite bow. “Can I help you in here?”

She fussed with a stack of baking sheets, realized that she had nowhere else to put them, and set them back down again. “Oh no, I couldn’t ask you to--”

“I would like to help. If only to escape the noise level for a while.”

She smiled, understanding, as a peal of high-pitched laughter sounded from the living room. “Usagi certainly seems to be having a good time.”

“And Jaden is managing to match her in both speed and volume.” He looked over the sink again. “I can get some of these dishes out of your way.”

She bit her lip anxiously. “Well, if you really don’t mind...”

“Not at all.” It pained him to see a kitchen so overloaded with dirty dishes, and he felt the need for distraction. As he organized the pots in the sink and began to run hot water into it, he noticed the cake sitting on top of the fridge, likely to keep it out of reach from certain shorter guests. The ribbons of chocolate frosting around the edge were as straight and even as he had seen in any cake shop. Red roses were piled in one corner, with leaves spilling down the side. “Did you make that?”

She seemed to be preoccupied with mixing something in one of the few clean mixing bowls remaining. He wondered just how many mixing bowls she possessed and how she managed to store them all. “Hmm? Oh, yes. It’s chocolate, you know, for Mamoru.”

Kain had only very recently learned that Mamoru had a secret love for all things chocolate. He knew it should not have bothered him, that what had taken him months of prodding and carefully learning about his prince was already common knowledge to somebody else. But it served as a small reminder of the years that he had not been there, when other people had fought beside Mamoru in his place. “Of course,” he replied, as he began to remove dishes from the sink, so that he could rinse globs of dough and cake batter from it before filling it. “Chocolate frosting as well, I take it?”

Makoto focused on the bowl in front of her. Her hand plunged right into the bowl, fearless of the mess. “Yes, a chocolate Italian buttercream.”

“I’m not altogether familiar with cake baking. Is Italian buttercream different?”

“From other buttercreams? It has a lighter texture, because it’s partially made out of whipped eggs, like a meringue.”

“Is it safe to keep it at room temperature, then?”

He was briefly concerned that she would take offense at his questioning, but her smile said that she was happy for the opportunity to discuss the details of her creation. “Actually, yes. The secret is to add boiled sugar to the eggs as they’re being whipped. The sugar sort of cooks the egg, but if you’ve tempered everything properly, the eggs stay fluffy.” She opened a cupboard above her, and began pulling down jars of spices with her clean hand. “It’s easy enough, now that I have a mix master to do the meringue while I focus on the sugar. I sincerely regret the time I enlisted Mina to help me with the sugar.”

“Did she burn it?”

“Lit it on fire, actually.”

“I can see how that might infringe upon the making of frosting.” After carefully rearranging the dishes in his immediate vicinity, Kain had approximately a third more space to work with than he’d had before. He reached across the counter to retrieve a stack of pans, and free up more counter space around her.

“Oh, let me--” Makoto hurried to grab the pans for him, closing her hand around them just as his came in contact with the other end.

A white-hot shock of electricity exploded in his wet hand, and he jumped back in alarm, trailing soapy water down the counter and onto the floor. The pans, all four of them, predictably clattered to the floor with a deafening crash.

They stared at each other a moment--her hands covered up to the wrist in what may have been risotto, him with his hands covered in soapy water that seemed to have turned half into slush in a moment of panic. Jaden leaned into the door across from them. “Everything okay in--HAHA OH SHIT MAN, YOUR HAIR!”

Kain glared at the blond with all the force of a thousand glaciers. “Yes. Alright. Everything is fine, Jaden.”

“What did you DO, stick a fork in a socket?”

“This situation does not require your commentary, Jaden.”

“Okay, that’s fine.” He produced his phone from his pocket. “I just need a picture, first.”

“Not unless you want your phone to swim in the dishwater.”

“You never let me have any fun. Hey Sasha, Kain’s doing a David Bowie impression!”

From the living room, Sasha’s voice called back. “Present Bowie or Ziggy Stardust Bowie?”

“Labyrinth Bowie!”

“Get a picture!”

“Sorry man, majority rules.” Jaden snapped the photo before Kain could decide whether to break him or the phone, and was already out of the room before he had decided to break both.

With nothing at all nearby that was within his power to break without seeming, at the very least, profoundly rude to his host, Kain instead snatched up a dish towel and dried his hands as meticulously and unaggressively as his burning hatred for phones and their cameras allowed. 

“I’m so sorry,” Makoto squeeked, and he realized that she was still standing beside the fallen pans, staring in horror. He found that he was so used to living with people who took immense pleasure in his rare moments of downfall that he realized he had very much been expecting her to join in the laughter. 

He set down the towel, and smoothed his hair in the most casual manner possible under the circumstances. “Not at all. I should have been more cautious.”

“No, you wouldn’t have--oh jeeze.” She leaned both hands against the counter, and Kain tried very hard not to inwardly wince at the risotto smearing on its edges, even if the counter was dirty to begin with. She sighed, head sagging down, and he could see the tense muscles in her strong shoulders working beneath her tank top. “This isn’t working very well. Let’s start over. My name is Makoto Kino, and I enjoy hosting parties. I am normally very, very good with them. But today is less good. Today I’m too busy waiting for a thunderstorm to happen to think straight.” 

Her frankness caught him off guard. He had expected them to dance around such topics as powers for an indeterminate amount of time, and here she was, confessing a significant flaw in her abilities. He ran his hand over his hair a final time, not altogether satisfied that it was in its proper place, but not wanting to be seen as fidgeting. “It’s an honor, Kino-san, and I’m sure the storm and its unfortunate consequences can be excused.”

They both went for the pans again, and Makoto held up a messy hand with a giggle. “No, really, let me. I think I’ve given up on this recipe, anyway. It’s an unsuccessful experiment that shows I should stick to cakes and pastries.”

He allowed her to pick up the pans, if only because he did not want to achieve maximum hair volume again. “Really? What sort of experiment?”

“Just something I found in a magazine. It involves squishing risotto into balls and frying it, but it’s not sticking together very well, and I think it’s sort of bland.” 

Despite a myriad of other things occupying his mind, Kain had to admit that his curiosity was piqued. “May I take a look?”

Makoto looked around her messy kitchen. “Why, do you think you can possibly make it worse?”

***

“Brad Pitt.”

“That’s a boring answer. Every woman has that answer.”

“Come on! You said Angelina. It’s only fair.”

“Okay, fine.” He rolled the ball around in his broad hands for a moment, before tossing it to her. “Victoria Beckham.”

It flew a little high, but she caught it with both hands, giggling. “Only if I get David.” She tossed it back.

“That’s fine. That’s a fair trade. Divide and conquer is an appropriate maneuver in so many situations.” Though the room was dark, lit only by the twinkling city outside, his grin still seemed to warm the room. “Natalie Portman.” He tossed the ball back.

The ball was small and squishy and painted to look like a basketball. Mina was the one who had given it to Makoto after retrieving it from a game machine, and so she felt perfectly entitled to throw it at the almost-stranger across from her. “Christian Bale.” Toss.

“That gets a pass only because he’s Batman. Esperanza Spalding.” Toss.

“Ooh! Good one! Gorgeous and a fantastic voice.” She considered, squishing the ball between manicured fingers. Her top shimmered slightly in the darkness as she moved. “Colin Firth.” Toss.

“Bullshit. You like Colin Firth because he is charming and has an accent, not because he’s attractive.”

“Attraction isn’t only about looks, you know.”

“If you aren’t going to touch yourself to a photo of him in his underwear, then it doesn’t count.” He threw the ball back. 

Other girls may have found his bluntness offensive, but Minako could only giggle. “Alright, alright. George Clooney.” Toss.

He tossed the ball between his hands, leaning back in the desk chair he occupied, propping one foot on the edge of the bed. “Damn, another Batman. I think you’ve got a thing for the broody ones.”

“Was he Batman?”

“The most unfortunate of Batmans. Anyway, he’s an old dude. Do you pick up men in retirement homes, too?”

She continued to giggle. “Hey, maturity is sexy.”

“So’s having your own teeth.”

“You can’t tell me you don’t have at least one older lady stashed on your list.”

“Okay. Michelle Pfeiffer is a silver fox.” Toss.

“Hmm.” Minako leaned back against the headboard of Makoto’s bed, bringing her knees up to her chest. 

“What?”

“That’s the first blonde I’ve noticed on your list.”

“Does that mean something?”

“Maybe that I’m not your type.”

“Honey,” he smirked, “you’re everyone’s type.”

When she threw the ball at his head, he dramatically threw his hands up in defense, and it bounced ineffectually off his arm. “Flatterer.”

He had a deep, hearty laugh. “It’s not flattery if it’s the truth.”

She stretched, arms over her head, leaning back against the headboard. “So?”

“So, what?”

“What do you think of the view?”

“Stunning.” He was not looking out the window.

She gave him a long look. “Okay, I suppose you pass.”

“Pass what? Was there some kind of test I wasn’t aware of?”

“I’ve just decided that you’re taking me to Tokyo’s Imperial Palace tomorrow.”

For once, she seemed to have thrown him off. “The... Imperial Palace? Where did that come from?”

“I haven’t been there in years, and it’s a prime tourist attraction.”

“Wait, aren’t you supposed to be my tour guide?”

“I am. But this tour guide doesn’t work for free.”

He grinned across at her. “Alright, sweetheart. It’s a date.”

***

Jupiter--no, _Makoto_ leaned over the pan, inhaling the savory scent that rose from the crackling fried risotto. “How in the world did you do that?”

“Practice. I’ve made it for my dad a few times.”

“What was I doing wrong?”

Kain turned the little balls of rice over, considering how to most tactfully address the issue. Makoto was clearly a skilled chef--it was visible all over the grand cake sitting on top of the fridge--and this was her kitchen. “The recipe did not seem to call for enough moisture.”

She laughed, all casual warmth despite this strange man in her kitchen, criticizing her cooking. “Of course. Will you write down the ratio for me later?”

“I can write down the whole recipe, if you would like.”

She picked up the magazine clip-out she had followed. “This one’s a dud, isn’t it?”

“I believe that they cut too many corners in the process.”

She crumpled the clipping with a fierce crunch. “Ah well, that’s what I get for trusting a magazine that promises a decent meal in ten minutes. Nothing good can happen in only ten minutes.”

Kain mentally acknowledged to himself that, had any of his housemates been nearby to hear that statement, it would have spawned any number of innuendo-laden statements. He was relieved to, for once, have them out of earshot.

Makoto reached up and re-tied her ponytail, looking notably less frayed than before. The kitchen was not quite sparkling yet, but the bulk of the dishes had been cleared away, making it feel entirely less claustrophobic to Kain. “I don’t think it’s cooling off out there at all, do you? Lemonade?”

Short of freezing the entire kitchen, Kain could only do so much to mitigate the heat rising from the stove, adding to the existing stuffiness in the rest of the apartment. “That would be very nice, thank you.”

She opened the fridge, and bent down to retrieve the pitcher from the back. Just then, a tall figure appeared in the kitchen doorway. The room’s small size meant that when the fridge was open, its door blocked entry to the kitchen. Neil was capable of looking entirely like he planned to stand there all along, leaning one shoulder contentedly on the doorframe and filling the majority of the doorway with his bulk. He grinned over the edge of the fridge door at Kain. “Aw, an hour in somebody else’s place and already you’ve gone all domestic!”

Kain refused to acknowledge that the kitchen’s temperature may have dropped a few degrees in the wake of that statement. “It is my understanding that you should be busy right now. Socializing. Elsewhere.”

“My beer is warm. Maybe you’ve got a built in air conditioner, Mr. Freeze, but in case you haven’t noticed, the air in here is more moist than a Twimom’s panties at a New Moon premier. I’ve got enough sweat running from my armpits to power a small hydroelectric dam. Wanna get a good smell--oh.” Neil had leaned against the fridge door, and glanced down to see what Kain imagined to be an incredibly advantageous view of their host’s backside. 

Makoto glanced up, and Kain also imagined that what she saw was a tall, sweaty man ogling her from overhead. She righted herself, and set the pitcher sharply down on the newly-cleaned counter. Perhaps it was the heat and all the blood rushing to her head, but she looked slightly more flushed than she had before. “What was that? All I heard was ‘panties.’”

“I was just making a joke about--well, it probably doesn’t translate very well.” He gave her his most charming smile, one that Kain had observed in the bar and with cute waitresses countless times before. “Lovely party, by the way.”

Makoto crossed her arms over her chest, and though her pink apron remained, somehow she had suddenly transformed from tired, frantic chef to a warrior whose command of the elements once made entire civilizations shudder. At least, that was what Kain saw. What Neil likely saw, given his glance downward, was how her crossed arms made her impressive chest stand out. “Is there a reason you’re in my kitchen?”

“Um.” For once, that charming smile faltered. “Just... just grabbing a beer.”

She reached into the fridge, closed her hand around a beer, and--for one brief moment Kain considered saying something before she smashed it over his head--shoved it into his chest. 

Neil’s smile rose again. He was determined, it seemed, to salvage the situation. “Hey, thanks.”

“Anything else?”

“Just have yourself a pleasant evening, sweetheart.” He tipped the bottle in a sort of wave, or perhaps a salute, and turned to rejoin the party.

While Kain plated the last of the risotto, Makoto silently pulled down two glasses, filled them, and drank half a glass of pink lemonade in three gulps. Then she set her glass down--perhaps a little too aggressively for a glass--and began pulling out small dessert plates. “I think it’s time to serve the cake,” she announced to him. “I suddenly have a desperate urge for chocolate.”


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Many thanks to my friend Frizzy for the Japanese translation! It wound up being a much more complicated phrase to translate than I expected.

“It won’t work! Mamochan, make it work!” Usagi poked and prodded uselessly at the stereo, which staunchly remained as lively as a large black brick. She stood bent over it, displaying to the entirety of the room her pink skirt with the kittens on it.

“Are you sure it’s plugged in?” Jaden asked with a grin.

Perhaps other people would have been offended by such an obvious suggestion, but Usagi nodded earnestly, the kittens in her skirt swishing with anxiety. “Yes! I checked twice, just to make sure!” 

“Maybe you should stop jabbing at it,” Mamoru suggested with an indulgent smile. “Maybe it’s broken. We should ask Makoto about it when she’s not busy.”

“It’s not! It worked fine before! And I know how to work Mako-chan’s stereo!” He thought for a moment that she might actually stick her tongue out at him, the way she used to when she was younger, but she refrained, and he knew that he was meant to understand from her tone of voice that there was a metaphorical tongue being stuck out at him instead.

“Let me see!” Jaden rushed to join Usagi, and Mamoru considered whether he should rescue Makoto’s stereo from the two of them. Really, he loved them both, but he was quickly learning that neither Jaden nor Usagi could be trusted with anything fragile. Last night, Usagi had flopped over in bed and somehow wound up knocking the lamp from his bedside table. It was, in fact, the third lamp that Mamoru had placed in that spot, and he was not sure whether that made him insane for expecting any other result or simply a poor furniture arranger for putting it in what was clearly a high-risk location.

Jaden was less accident prone than he was prone to playing with things until they broke. Not that he was not quite good with electronics and making them function, but anything that wound up in Jaden’s hands seemed just as at risk of being snapped in half. Really, putting the two of them together was just asking for disaster. “Do we really need music?” He asked dubiously.

“Of course we do!” Usagi exclaimed. “It’s a party!”

Now Jaden had the stereo turned on its side, and Mamoru could see that any hope of dissuading either of them was lost. It was not a very new stereo, anyway. He was sure that Makoto would be happy when Mamoru ended up having to buy her a new one.

Really, nothing could put a damper on his spirits tonight. He was home with his fiance for the first time since September. And for the first time in his life, his fiance was in the same room as his guardians. He had never actually expected his Shitennou to come back with him for the summer. It was an incredible thing to ask, for them to uproot themselves and travel to a foreign country--one that they had only ever seen under the very worst of circumstances. But he wanted--needed, desperately--to go, and it was they who did not want him to go alone. That was something he had never experienced before, having people in his life (other than Usagi) who were willing to go to such lengths for him.

He had been briefly concerned that this would not go over smoothly, but now he saw that his fears had been mostly unfounded. Usagi and Jaden could have been siblings in another life. Sasha and Ami had been talking quietly for at least the past hour. Neil was easily charming most of the girls in the room, and a glance in the kitchen told him that Kain was getting along with Makoto--in fact, he was talking to her, which was a sign of high praise for Makoto. The only sour face was Rei’s, but she had refrained from speaking even a negative word to anybody, which Mamoru took to be something of a truce. He frowned at that. Rei’s approval had never been easy to win, but he had always valued her insight. Her grim silence did darken the mood a bit, even with Usagi chattering beside him.

“No way! You have a band?! Mamochan, you never told me they were musicians! What do you play? Are you famous? Do you have an album? Can I hear it? You should meet Mina! Mina sings!” Suddenly Minako joined the fray, and now the three blondes were circled around the stereo, conversing at the speed of light. 

“Looks like you’ve lost them,” Neil chuckled beside him, a bottle of beer in hand. 

“They lost me. About an hour ago,” Mamoru watched the way his fiance laughed, a full-bodied peal that brightened the room to its very corners. 

Now Jaden was racing over to Neil and grabbing the corner of his shirt to flatten out the print on front. “Look, see?”

Mamoru was so used to Neil clothing himself in cartoon characters from his childhood or witty English phrases he did not understand that he had not even noticed his choice of shirt tonight. But now he looked it over with increasing trepidation. The print featured a buxom young woman posing against an anchor taller than herself, dressed in little white shorts and a midriff-exposing top with a sailor collar. 

Usagi “oooh”ed approvingly. “That’s the name of your band? What does it say, Minako-chan?”

Mamoru looked up at Neil. “Was that shirt really a good idea?”

The brunette shrugged. “What’s wrong with promoting my best friend’s shitty band to an international audience?”

Mina squinted at the shirt, struggling a moment with the stylized lettering. “Killed by...” she paused, and then her eyes went round “...Sailors?”

“Se-ra-zu?” Usagi repeated slowly, latching onto the only familiar word. “Oh! Like us! Right?” She looked around imploringly, clearly delighted both to recognize the foreign word, and to discover a band that shared part of her name. 

“It says...” Minako paused, perhaps to consider how the phrase should be translated, or perhaps to consider whether it should be at all. Mamoru began to hope that she would decide that this was one set of words that should remain unintelligibly in English. Unfortunately, it was not to be. “セーラーズに殺された。”

“Korosereta?” Usagi parroted back, blinking in confusion at the word for “killed.” She looked up at Jaden in innocent wonder. “That’s... really what you called yourselves?” And maybe, if she were anybody else, she would have been offended, and angry. But instead her eyes began to flood, and Mamoru knew that those were not angry tears. She was deeply, horribly sad.

He began to scramble out of his chair. Because Usagi was sad, and if she was sad, then everything in the entire universe, and especially this room, and especially him, was going to be upset for the rest of the night, and he desperately needed to stop those tears.

But then a peal of laughter erupted beside her. Mina had her arms wrapped around her stomach, glittery top shimmering with every shaking giggle, barely able to contain herself. “You... you called yourselves...” she gasped out the words, and then collapsed again into hysterics. 

Usagi sniffled at her, tears still there but suddenly too confused for her eyes to generate more. “I don’t get it. Why is it funny?”

Mina had to latch onto Neil, burying her face in the offending shirt, to quell her laughter. “Because!” she choked. “Because it’s true!”

Usagi could only stare at her in wonder. Jaden was grinning. “It’s called gallows humor.”

“So you mean like, making something sad into something funny?”

“Exactly!”

“Rei-chan!” Minako called over her shoulder. “I’m surprised you didn’t catch it! Haven’t you been getting perfect scores in English?”

Rei, sitting in a corner that was only otherwise occupied by most of Makoto’s plants, giving the impression that she had her own private garden, lowered her glass of lemonade and gave the group a frosty look. “I have difficulty with the present tense.”

“It’s not in present tense,” Jaden helpfully informed her.

“It’s about to be.”

Neil guffawed, loud enough to drown out the whole room. “Oh snap! Do you need some burn cream, son?”

Jaden’s face split into a grin. “It’s okay. Maybe we should consider renaming ourselves, anyway. How’s ‘Fondled by Sailors’ sound?”

“Sounds like wishful thinking to me.” 

“Are we going to have some music, or what?” Mina cut in, as Rei stormed past all of them into the kitchen.

Jaden watched her go. “Music? ...Oh, right!” Everything else forgotten, he turned back to the malfunctioning stereo.

The young princess still looked concerned as she squeezed into Mamoru’s seat with him, but now tears were no longer imminent. “Don’t you find it sad, Mamochan?”

“Sad” was probably the greatest understatement possible. Did he find it sad that his guardians were killed before he could reunite with them? That they were killed by the very people he had come to consider his friends and comrades? That it had been necessary after what was done to them, after everything they were was twisted and enslaved, and the only reason he and his fiance were alive to hold each other now was because they were eliminated in time? 

But he knew her, and what she was trying to say. “If there’s one thing I’ve learned from these guys, it’s that they would rather laugh at something than let it get to them.”

“Yeah,” grunted Neil, who had his arm around Minako now. This was not an altogether unexpected development, as Neil usually seemed to end up with his arm around a girl at some point during the course of a night, if there were girls to be found. These particular girls may have been able to call down the elements from the heavens, but it was still Neil, and his biceps, and his charm. “Isn’t it always better to laugh?”

“Maybe,” Usagi conceded, and finally she began to relax into Mamoru, settling against his side. In the lull in the conversation, he could hear a distant rumble.

She tensed up again. “Is that thunder?”

His arm tightened around her waist. “The forecast did call for rain tonight.”

“I hate thunder,” she grumbled.

This he knew very well, although Mamoru found it amazing that this was one thing she had never grown out of. “You’re not going to sleep at all tonight, are you?”

She leaned close to speak softly. “Well, you’ll just have to keep me company then, won’t you?”

“Oh, Mamoru!” Neil chimed, taking on a floaty feminine voice. Clearly Usagi had not spoken quite quietly enough. “Mamoru, you big sexy hunk, keep me company tonight!” 

Mamoru felt himself beginning to flush a bit. Around Neil, nothing at all was sacred, not even his precious time with his princess. “S-stop it...” But now Neil had draped himself over Mamoru’s other side, the full weight of his broad Canadian body seated on Mamoru’s lap, muscled arms wrapping around both him and Usagi. 

“Mamoru, baby, keep me warm all night long!” Mamoru found himself trapped between Neil’s stubbly chin and Usagi’s giggles. 

“Looks like you’re going to have to share him, Usagi,” Mina joined in. Trust her to egg Neil on.

“Usagi is generous! Aren’t you, Usagi? O benevolent queen, please grant me a piece of your boyfriend’s ass tonight!”

Usagi was clearly loving it, leaving Mamoru both outnumbered and outweighed. He knew Neil was harmless, but he also had no shame, and he did not relish being humiliated in front of people who were supposed to think of him as respectable. 

She pretended to think about it. “Hmm, forgive me, honored servant, but I have waited a very long time to have my Mamochan to myself. You got him for a whole bunch of months.”

Neil clutched his chest in mock hurt. “Alas, your reasoning is sound, my queen. And what a hot bunch of months it was.”

Mamoru tried very hard to edge out from under Neil, but it was like flailing beneath the weight of a mountain. “Are you going to get off me now?”

“Nah, I thought I’d see how much more I can make you squirm.” He could hear the grin in Neil’s voice, though turning his head was nearly impossible, due to the brunette’s face nearly pressed up against his. “Queen Usagi, your boyfriend is a squirmer. Has he always been a squirmer?”

“Always,” she giggled traitorously.

Just then, Makoto, bless her Amazon-sized heart, swept into the room to rescue him. “Time for cake!”

The cake was so glorious that Neil forgot all about teasing his prince. Mamoru’s leg ached and prickled in protest as the brunette’s weight left it, allowing the blood to rush back into it. But he had no time to worry about that, because before him was a tall chocolate cake iced in chocolate buttercream, with a cascade of deep red roses covering it. He had waited nine long months to taste Makoto’s baking again. Already he could practically taste the moist cake, the fluffy frosting with its rich cocoa taste--

It would not be until much later in the night that Mamoru would be able to sort out the sequence of the events that followed. He would later be certain that the spark, the catalyst for the chaos that would follow, was when he heard a triumphant “ha!” from Jaden’s corner of the room, almost directly behind Makoto. This was followed by a discordant sound so loud that it shook the floor. The sound would resolve itself into music, because of course the source of it was the fussy stereo, suddenly fixed--albeit at a much higher volume than necessary--by Jaden.

That was where the order of things became blurred. Did Usagi scream beside him at the loud noise, or did she scream half a second later, when the room seemed to explode with electricity? Did the lights go out the moment he was blinded by lightning sparking out in every direction, or was it moments later? And did everyone scream at that point, when they were plunged into quiet darkness, or did it only seem that way because Usagi’s screams, especially beside his ear, were enough for all of them?

He leapt to his feet, Usagi under his arm, and bumped face-first into the solid wall that was Neil’s back. Everything was darkness, not just the apartment, but the street outside. The room had erupted into shouts, demands to get off somebody’s foot, moans, the nervous whimpers of the blonde beside him.

“Everyone be quiet!” Kain’s voice cut through the din like a knife, and suddenly the room went still. “Is everyone alright? Prince, princess?”

It was the first time in a long time that Kain had called Mamoru by his title. “We’re fine,” he answered for the two of them. Even if he did not have his hands on Usagi, sensing every faint change in her physical health, he knew that the whimpers in her throat meant fear and worry rather than pain.

“Are you hurt?” Kain’s voice spoke again, but this time lower and quieter. Of course, Kain was the only person in the room who could see. Mamoru could only stand dumbly where he was, aware only of the state of the people immediately around him.

“I’m... I’m alright,” Makoto’s voice answered.

“Do you have any flashlights or candles?”

“I think maybe... in the hall closet?”

Suddenly a light source flared up, impossibly bright after Mamoru had been straining to see through the pitch black. When he had blinked at it enough, he realized that he was staring at the lit screen of a cellphone, Mina’s face dimly illuminated by it. “Come on, Makochan, I’ll help you find them.” Makoto stood, and in that very faint light, a small heap on the floor that could only be the ruined remains of the cake was briefly outlined. Mamoru thought wistfully of all those buttercream roses.

“Mamoru, I need you to come here.” Kain’s voice instructed him. Mina and her light source had already trailed away, leaving Mamoru to stumble past Neil in the direction of Kain’s voice. He inwardly cursed himself for leaving his cell on a table somewhere.

“What’s wrong?”

“I think Jaden’s been burned.” 

Fleetingly, the prince of the Earth thought that he should have known better than to believe that a meeting between his Shitennou and the senshi would not end with at least one of them winding up burned.

***

When Minako slipped in through her friend’s bedroom door, it was much the same as when she had lead Neil in some hours earlier. It was still dimly lit only by the city lights filtering through the curtains, rain beating softly on the windowpane. It was still neatly kept, and smelling faintly of the bowl of dried rose petals on the dresser. Beside it, the little ball they had tossed around still sat.

But now, where Mina had perched before, enticing Neil’s gaze, the bedding had formed a veritable mountain. She could only assume that there was a body somewhere beneath the mounds of pink rose-printed quilt.

She climbed onto the bed, folding her body against the lump and resting her cheek on one of the many thick down pillows. After a moment, the entire structure shifted, a few layers drew back, and a pair of dark eyes glistened at her through the darkness. 

“Feeling any better?”

Outside, the thunder grumbled to itself like a sleepy old man. Makoto’s own voice sounded equally weary and ragged. “The storm’s passing.”

“That’s good. Well, the good news is that your party was memorable.”

The brunette gave a choked laugh. “No denying that, I guess. Was everyone else okay?” She had only stayed long enough to see that Jaden was not in serious condition. Long enough to hear someone say that his face was burned the worst.

“There were just a few minor burns. Mamoru got them all. He, uh, wanted me to tell you he’d replace your stereo.”

“Wait, what’s wrong with my stereo?”

“Jaden’s hand was on it.”

Makoto took a slow breath. “Oh.” It was Rei, Minako thought, who she had always imagined had to fear “friendly fire” from her own attacks the most. Fire was so hard to contain. But nothing was so unpredictable as lightning. Fire, at least, did not leave an exit wound.

“Has everyone left yet?” 

She could cause a district-wide blackout with a single bad day, but right now Mina’s tallest, strongest friend sounded as fragile as a small child. She snuggled in closer against Makoto. “They’re gone. Neil and Kain stayed behind a bit longer to help clean up.”

Makoto sighed into her pillows. “That was kind of them. Kain’s a good guy.”

Minako watched her friend through the darkness. “Yes. He is.”


	5. Chapter 5

He missed his record player. With sound quality that could make the very walls vibrate with music, every hiss and crackle of the record weaving into the layers of sound. His iPhone contained only the highest quality (entirely legal, of course) files, his headphones were professional quality and a significant investment compared to the tinny little earbuds that his housemates satisfied themselves with, but it was not quite the same. He could immerse himself in Johnny Cash’s rumbling voice, but tonight it felt a bit hollow.

Three days had already passed since the party (the one that may or may not have been classified as catastrophic, although it seemed most of the senshi were at least as embarrassed by the incident as they were, and were happy not to discuss matters of blame as long as nobody ever mentioned it again), and Kain had hardly seen or spoken to anyone. He had left the apartment only for the most basic of necessities. Groceries, laundry, his morning run. Jaden had long ago recovered from his burns, and he and Sasha were probably terrorizing the streets of Tokyo this very second. Mamoru had to be reminded to check in, being that he was otherwise... distracted. Neil was frequently gone, returning home late every night and leaving an endless trail of tourist brochures and ticket stubs in his path. It seemed that he and his guide were determined to cover every inch of Tokyo before the summer was out. Now it was getting late, and no sign of Neil. Nor of his date.

He sat back against the couch, closing his eyes. It had been another sleepless night, and Johnny’s grinding old voice could almost lull him to sleep. It was the song of a man at the end of his life--full of ache and weariness. Johnny Cash knew what it was to live too many lifetimes. He must have had so many sleepless nights, too. So many nightmares.

The song ended in its incomplete way, with Johnny’s wistful “I would find a way.” In the long silence that followed the track, Kain released a breath, and realized that he could hear voices. 

He lowered his headphones, and the sound became apparent. A high, clear laugh floating from the hall. Accompanied by a much deeper one. Private whispers, mutterings that seemed to dissolve into wordless sounds. The apartment was dark, and it was not unreasonable for them to believe that they were alone.

She appeared first. Golden hair and tan and jeans that hugged her hips very nicely. She turned, just out of view, standing on tiptoe, and a dark arm appeared to snake around her waist. She kissed her unseen escort long and deep, making no effort at all to silence her small moans. He was the first to cut it off, the arm around her waist abruptly tensing, and suddenly she was lifted into the air with a shriek. 

Neil entered the room fully, a caveman in an Iron Man shirt with a giggling woman thrown over his shoulder. She kicked at him ineffectually, and Kain wondered whether Neil was the only one in the room who did not know that she could have hurt him for real if this was not what she wanted.

He deposited her on the couch, her foot very nearly swiping Kain in the head. At least they had chosen the side of the couch on which Neil spent most days sprawling half-naked.

Neil was fortunately clothed now, but he was also all hands, and she a magnet for them. When he reached for the hem of her shirt, she giggled, pushing him back. “I thought I was here to have a beer and look at your photos.”

His grin was surely so bright that it was visible even to her in the darkness. “You don’t want to do that in the morning?”

She wrinkled her nose. “Beer in the morning?”

“It’s delicious on corn flakes.”

She laughed again. “Oh, you are disgusting. That settles it, I am definitely ordering for you at restaurants from now on.” 

Neil reached up, fumbling for the lamp. “I will accept this only because you are the local, and therefore knowJESUS FUCK.”

Kain squinted across the couch through the sudden light and the shocked screams of the pair. “Evening.”

Neil stared at him, wide-eyed in shock. “You goddamn bastard! Wear a blinking light or something when you decide to hang out in dark rooms! Or maybe talk, like a normal person!”

“There did not appear to be a polite moment in which to interrupt.”

Minako looked at him with cool blue eyes. Her face was more deeply tanned than it had been the day before, her eyes lightly highlighted in shimmering gold. “Politeness is so undervalued these days, isn’t it?”

Neil sank into the chair beside her, clutching his still-racing heart. “Why did I have to go and live with the motherfucking ninja?” 

Kain could watch them both from where he sat, but Mina would have to turn her head to look between them. Still her eyes remained leveled with Kain’s. “Did you enjoy your day out?”

“It was lovely,” she answered for the two of them. “Maybe you should try it. Get some sun too.”

“And now,” Neil said a little too loudly, upset at having lost some of her attention, “we are going to have a beer and look at my pictures from Whistler. Do you want a beer?” He asked this last question as though he were asking Kain whether he would like to jump off the nearest building without a parachute.

“Thank you, but I’ve seen enough of your pictures of mountains to last me for a while.” Kain stood, collecting his iPhone and headphones. Before he had even closed the door to his bedroom, Minako’s giggles had already resumed.

***  
 _  
On a warm summer day, Earth nearly felt like it resembled Venus. It was not quite as humid, nor was the air thick with the perfume of wild flowers, but as she passed the long windows that gleamed in the stone corridor, the sun glimmered off of the gold chainmail of the princess’s gown, and she was pleased with the effects._

_The man who strode beside her also seemed pleased with it, for he liked to cast her many casual glances as he walked, only sometimes in the direction of her face. Her escort could not be described as a perfect gentleman, but she had already determined that he was noble, a trait that she considered far more important._

_Nephrite gave her his irresistible grin, his dark eyes full of good humor. Though he wore his formal uniform, his curly hair was untamed, and a faint shadow of stubble was beginning to show. His ceremonial sword and dagger were clipped to his belt, but her informants were of the impression that he preferred much heavier weaponry. “Shall I show you the gardens next, your highness? You have viewed all of the most interesting parts of our castle already.”_

_“Perhaps another time,” Venus answered lightly. “I have heard many tales of the rose garden of the Golden Kingdom, but I do not believe I will have time on this visit.”_

_He paused at a particular window that had been thrown wide to let in the warm breeze. Panels of stained glass depicting the royal symbols of the rose and the sword glimmered with light. “That is a shame. As I recall, it was raining on your last visit, and you should see the countryside in the sunlight.”_

_She moved beside him and looked out over the castle grounds, to the lush forests beyond. The sky was rimmed with mountains, still capped with snow at the peaks. “It is a most lovely day, isn’t it? I’m sure we can still enjoy it on the training grounds.”_

_If he was surprised, the warrior beside her did not show it. Instead, his grin only widened as he looked at her, as though they were sharing a joke. “Your highness, you did not give us much warning of your visit. I am afraid you will find our hospitality lacking on the grounds. It is for soldiers, not royalty.”_

_She shrugged, adopting the look of a naive and innocent girl. Of course they were not prepared. It meant that they had no time to sweep any unpleasantness under a rug. “I’m afraid that in all the turmoil of being a princess, I neglected to send my messenger in a timely fashion. I’m sure my delicate sensibilities can handle a few sweaty men swinging sticks at each other.”_

_The brunette crossed his arms over his broad chest. “My lady, I’m afraid that right now I am more concerned about the delicate sensibilities of the soldiers.”_

_She looked at him, uncomprehending, for a moment. Then his eyes glanced downward, and so did hers. Her gown was made up primarily of delicate gold chainmail and light, gauzy silks. She knew that ladies of the Golden Kingdom tended to be a little... demure in their dress. That was why the chains spilled fully over her breasts, and why the colorful silks brushed her ankles. Altogether, it was really rather more than anybody should be wearing on a warm day. Although, the silk was quite transparent, and tended to flutter open as she moved. And no matter how finely the links of the mail were knitted together, her nipples were still apparent to anyone with eyes. “Too... little?”_

_“You may just incite a riot.”_

_Her face broke into a grin to match his. “In that case, it will be most interesting to observe how your commander handles them.”_

_His laugh was tremendous: a deep roar that boomed through the window and into the kingdom below. “Your highness, you are as merciless as he is.”_

_“I would not trust just anyone with my soldiers, my lord. You will show me just how merciless he is.”_

***

The key to running long distances was to wait out the pain. Ignore the burning muscles and the lungs that felt like they were going to explode, push through the sick feeling and the weakness of the limbs. Soon the endorphins would override it all. He just had to get past that first kilometer.

It might just take that full kilometer to forget the nightmares that drove him out of the apartment at three in the morning. 

After running through the dark hours of the morning every day since his arrival in Tokyo, Kain already had an ideal route carefully mapped out in his head. This route minimized his contact with traffic, maximized the amount of time spent near the park, forced him to take on two moderately sloped hills, and covered approximately 12 kilometers of ground. He passed beneath the pale orange street lights, maintaining an even pace, and waited for the pain to fade.

Tall apartment buildings towered overhead, and though the crisp air struck his face to remind him that he was awake, their looming shapes against the dark sky were all too similar to how they looked in his dreams. The buildings of his nightmares, though, twisted like angry thorns, arcing impossibly high overhead, before pointing downward like accusatory fingers. 

No such phenomena was affecting them now, but still the irrational feeling came over him that the city was watching him.

He picked up his pace as the park came into view at the end of the street. Juuban was a quiet district, and at this hour, the streets all but deserted. 

In his dreams, the streets were never empty. There were people everywhere. People who were blue and wide-eyed, people who were buried beneath sheets of ice. 

His feet hit grass before he realized that his lungs were burning, that somewhere he had left behind his reasonable long-distance pace and broken into a full sprint. He paused by the edge of a small artificial lake to catch his breath. Here the trees whispered softly to one another, and the lake rippled with faint slivers of pale blue to match the slowly lightening sky. He listened to the sound of his heart pounding in his ears, of his breaths turning slow and even. Even despite the lamps scattered along the park’s path, he stood beneath the shadow of the trees. One small blessing of being an insomniac was knowing that he would not be seen.

But now, as he looked out across the water, he saw a shape detach itself from the shadows. A feminine silhouette stood at the lake’s edge, and he knew that even in the shadows, she could see him there. As she turned away, the red of the bow in her hair was as bright as a beacon.

***

Artemis groaned in protest at the sudden intrusion of light. Why could he not have a nice, quiet housemate who slept at normal hours and did not consistently disturb his beauty rest? When he dared to open his eyes, it was just in time to watch Minako undo her henshin, reverting to her clothes of the day before. She pulled the window firmly shut, and gave a long stretch. “Late-night patrols are so relaxing! I should do them more often.”

He felt his ears fold back on his head at the strong scent emanating from her. “You smell like a man.”

Minako gave him a lazy grin as she untied her hair bow. “Mmm. Old Spice. Arctic Force. I’m more partial to Matterhorn, myself.”

“I take it that your issues with these men has been smoothed over, then.”

She fished a thick yellow bathrobe out of the closet. “That’s a word you could use for it.”

“Your mother won’t be very impressed with you running the shower at...” he inspected the clock, “4:30 in the morning.”

“No she won’t,” the blonde said carelessly, exiting the room with robe in hand.

The white cat sighed and burrowed underneath the blankets. The day that he understood this girl would be the day that he turned into a fire-breathing lion.

***

Kain had to endure waiting for the small, rickety elevator for the first time since moving in. Somewhere around the eighth kilometer, the mild ache in his left knee had turned to intense stabs of pain. He had slowed to a walk to rest it, but it was no use. Though he had cut through the park and turned down several side streets to shorten his route home, his slow limping pace still kept him from reaching his front door until after 5:00. 

Tired and annoyed at the indignity, all he wanted to do was brew a pot of coffee, make himself an ice pack, and retreat to his room to read the news and nurse his wounds in privacy. 

That plan did not include finding Neil on the couch, drinking milk directly from the carton, eating wasabi peas by the handful, and watching super sentai shows. He still had his Iron Man shirt on, but his pants were nowhere to be found.

Though the sun was fully up now, the hour on his watch still told him that it was well before Neil’s usual wake up time. “Shouldn’t you be asleep right now?”

“Shouldn’t you? Oh wait, I forgot. You’re a robot.” Neil crunched up the dried peas noisily, as masked warriors fought a rubber suit monster on the TV. “I am, in fact, concluding a fantastic evening with a gorgeous blonde. Who can sleep after lips like that?”

“Did she--”

“What?” The cocky grin was plastered all over Neil’s face.

“spend the night?”

The brunette cackled. “Why? Taking notes? Hoping to duplicate my success in the unlikely event that you ever come close to scoring?”

Kain rubbed his temple, feeling a headache mounting. “Never mind, then.” He slowly trudged into the kitchen, feeling like he was about eighty years old.

“What’d you do to your leg?” Neil called after him.

“Nothing,” he grumbled, pulling down the coffee filters. He knew that Neil could not resist bragging for long, and when he did not return to the living room immediately, the brunette appeared in the kitchen doorway instead, furry legs and all.

He shook the bag of wasabi peas at Kain. “They taste like MSG and burning. Want one?”

Kain carefully measured out the beans into the grinder. “No.”

Neil shoved another handful into his mouth while he waited for the grinder to finish. “So to answer your question, the lady did not ‘stay the night’ with me last night. There were some articles of clothing removed. Some creative uses for tongues. But alas, she took off to run a patrol. Got to see her change into her uniform and everything.” The brunette was positively beaming. “She jumped right off our balcony, which is fucking badass, don’t get me wrong, but the way her ass looked in that tiny little skirt as she climbed up on the railing...” he shook his head in wonder at the memory, “goddamn, that one’s going to get me through some cold nights.”

Kain had deposited the grounds into the machine and turned it on. “You should be careful.”

The grin faltered a little. “What, now?”

He retrieved a mug from the dish rack, and toweled off some excess moisture. “You should be careful around her. She’s not always what she seems.”

Dark brown eyes narrowed on him, probing. “You’re the one who said I should go after her. Are you saying I can’t now? What, are you putting a ban on Mina because you think she’s pretty?”

“You are welcome to do as you please,” Kain said evenly. “I am only giving you fair warning. See that you protect yourself around her.”

“Or what?”

Kain gave him a long look, but did not answer. Neil crossed his arms and squared his shoulders, a stance that was mitigated slightly by the fact that he was wearing a t-shirt and no pants. “What’d you do to your leg?”

Kain did not even dignify that question with a response. He poured his coffee, and headed for his room, where he would no longer have to stare at Neil’s exposed thighs.

***  
 _  
Kunzite, commander of the Shitennou, guard to the Crown Prince, and general of the new task force entrusted with neutralizing the threat of Solar Entities, looked positively murderous as he strode into the training room._

_“Eighty-two soldiers, Nephrite. Eighty-two soldiers I have had to order to swim laps across the Lake of Thyrsus today.”_

_The brunette did not even pause to acknowledge his commander’s presence, although his face had split into a grin. He stood alone at the center of the combat circle, only a wooden dummy standing defenseless against his massive axe. Unsurprisingly, Nephrite was only barely clothed. Sweat streaked his bare torso, as it was clearly too warm to train in full uniform, but Kunzite knew that Nephrite just liked having an excuse to disrobe. “The lake must be overflowing with spring runoff right now. And freezing.” He hefted the axe, one-handed, and cleaved the dummy nearly halfway through its middle. “That’s cold, commander. Literally.”_

_Kunzite glared at him from the edge of the circle. He had every right to step into it, as Nephrite’s superior, but it was poor manners to cross the circle’s edge while another was engaged in battle inside, and he valued the importance of etiquette. “It is fair punishment for a soldier who cannot keep his head in the face of a woman, even an indecently clothed one.” Nephrite circled the dummy, testing the weight of his weapon, amusement dancing in his eyes. “I do not enjoy doling out punishment, Nephrite.”_

_“Really? I thought you got off on that sort of thing. Tell me you didn’t get a sick sense of satisfaction watching all those Venusian pretty boys jump into an ice cold lake.”_

_Kunzite rubbed at his temple, where a headache was brewing. “I would have much preferred to make progress with them. Venusian soldiers are all but useless in the outdoors. They have no concept of weather, or of terrain. They have no sense of direction. They should be working with our forces by now, but they would appear so lost by comparison that it will only cause friction. This is the first true test of our alliance with Venus, but I fear that it is more like babysitting.”_

_Nephrite had transitioned to two-handed moves, blocking imaginary weapons with the shaft of the axe before weaving it around to land his own blow. “So dump them all in the woods and let them survive for a week. The ones who don’t die or resort to cannibalism will be the ones worth keeping.”_

_“If only it were that simple. Anyway, you are dodging the point. You were meant to entertain the princess. Here. In the palace. What part of ‘keep her away from the training grounds’ was too difficult for you?”_

_“The part where she batted her pretty golden eyes at me.”_

_“And other things, I imagine.”_

_“Don’t fuss yourself, commander. I’ve seen the bosoms of every serving girl and milkmaid in a three mile radius, although the Princess of Venus is certainly no milkmaid. She wanted to see you work because she wanted to be impressed.”_

_The commander had to admit that he was intrigued. “And?”_

_Nephrite paused to smirk at him. “And you delivered. The way you hammered those little recruits. If you weren’t getting off on it, she certainly was.”_

_Kunzite considered this. “Interesting.”_

_“So if there is anybody in this room who she is going to ‘bat her assets’ at...”_

_Kunzite gave him a hard look. “That would be incredibly inappropriate. Not only as a Shitennou, but as delegate for Venus on behalf of Earth.”_

_The brunette rolled his eyes, and then his shoulders, lifting his weapon again. “Fine, if you want to be all boring and responsible about it.”_

_“I am serious, Nephrite. Our position is tenuous, and all of the Silver Millennium is watching how we handle this alliance. Not a word of these musings of yours to anyone, not even in jest.”_

_“You’re the boss. Then do us all a favor and have a good tumble with one of those milkmaids. You haven’t had one in far too long, and it’s making you sour.” With one powerful swing, the dummy splintered in half, the pieces clattering to Nephrite’s feet._


	6. Chapter 6

Her skin smelled like honey in the morning. It also smelled of sweat and freshly laundered sheets and sleep, but underneath all of that, when he pressed his nose into the soft point at the base of her throat, was the faint smell of honey. 

Mamoru was a morning person. When he was not running off to class or the hospital, he could rise with the day, brew a cup of coffee, and watch the sun rise. He was not one to linger in bed after waking, not usually. But Usagi was very much not a morning person. She liked to sink back into her comforter, snuggle up to her stuffed bunny, and let the morning pass without her. 

It meant that their first hours of the day were spent apart, her in her dreams and him very much awake, unable to follow her. But it was also nice, to wake with her warmth beside him, to press his lips to her shoulder and hear her sleepy squeak in response. He could watch the gold light slanting through the curtains to make her sea of loose hair glisten. With her here, he could linger in bed, simply enjoying her closeness. 

It was on mornings like this that he wondered what had ever possessed him to leave the country for even a day. Harvard represented all of his dreams and aspirations, but his dorm room bed was small and cold, and their daily Skype visits did a poor job of making up for it. 

But Boston had also brought him more than he could ever ask for. His brothers, his guardians. Mamoru had never realized how incomplete his life was without them until they came along and changed everything. 

If only he could have it all. Usagi, the Shitennou, Harvard. If only he did not have to leave one for the others. But maybe that was what this whole visit between all of them was about. Bringing them all together. Granted, the last time they had all attempted to occupy the same room, Jaden had nearly had his face blown off, but it was a start. Sort of.

At that moment, as if on cue, his door buzzer rang. Mamoru checked the clock. It was 9:00--well after he was normally up, but well before anybody ever dared disturb them since his return to Tokyo. Perhaps it was a mistake. Perhaps it was just somebody delivering a package. The buzzer rang out several more times, as if someone was pounding on the button repeatedly. Usagi made a small whine as he carefully pulled his arm out from under her body and then disentangled himself from her hair. It was really a wonder that he did not find himself hog-tied by blonde hairs every morning.

The buzzer continued nonstop as he crossed the bedroom, walked down the hall, and made it to the phone. He picked up the receiver. “Yes?”

“Goddamn, are you guys doing it at nine o’clock in the morning? Don’t you ever stop to eat?”

Even though Neil was speaking English and unlikely to be understood by anybody standing near his building, Mamoru still felt his face go hot. “We--we’re not--”

“I’ve got food. Buzz me in, man.”

Arguing would have meant allowing Neil to stand in front of his apartment building and continue to say potentially embarrassing things, so Mamoru saved himself the trouble and just did as he was told. 

Usagi wandered out of the bedroom with Mamoru’s dark blue robe thrown over her pink duckling PJs, her long hair hanging in a curtain around her shoulders. “What’s going on?”

“Neil’s coming up. I think he brought breakfast.”

“Yay!” she cheered through a yawn, like a small child struggling to continue playing through naptime. “I like breakfast.”

“You don’t mind?” Mamoru found himself becoming oddly anxious about allowing his friends to encroach upon his time with Usagi. He had always been able to devote all of his focus on her, but now for the first time, he had other people to think about too.

“Of course not! He’s your friend, and besides, Neil is funny.”

His shoulders sagged slightly, as the tension he did not even realize was building in them released. “I’ll make us some coffee.”

Usagi made a face. “Do we still have strawberry milk?”

“Would you like me to rinse out your kitten glass so you can have your strawberry milk in it?”

The way that she beamed at him, one would think that he had proposed that they ride unicorns on diamond-encrusted saddles. “Yes please!”

Mamoru had already disappeared into the kitchen when a loud pounding on the door announced that Neil and his giant fist had arrived. “I’ll get it!” Usagi chimed. She bounded down the hall and pulled the door open. 

The brunette easily switched back to Japanese for Usagi’s benefit. “Well if it isn’t the princess of the pink fluffy ducklings! Have you been shrinking? Your robe appears to be dragging on the floor.”

She giggled. “It’s Mamochan’s robe.”

The tall brunette removed his shoes and stepped up onto the wood floor beside her, standing like a veritable mountain over the tiny girl. “Really? I’m amazed it doesn’t fit better, then. He’s skinny as hell too. I need you to help me fatten him up. Hey Chiba! Are you clothed?”

Mamoru leaned his head out the kitchen door. “Yes.”

“Damn, you get dressed quick. Must be all those times you two got interrupted by a youma wreaking havok.” 

Mamoru gritted his teeth to keep from flushing, but all that really accomplished was making him look even more pained. “We weren’t doing anything.”

“I don’t know if I believe you. Usagi, what were you and your strapping young man getting up to before I interrupted you?”

“I don’t know,” the blonde answered innocently. “I was sleeping.”

Neil grinned. “Ah, so it was a one-man show, then.”

Mamoru thought that he might just die then and there.

“Don’t worry, my Mamochan doesn’t need to do anything like that,” Usagi informed him authoritatively.

“You don’t think so, princess fluffy duckling?”

Usagi drew herself up to her full five-foot-two-inch height and looked square up at Neil. “Not while I’m here.”

A roar of laughter that must have woken every neighbor in the building who was not yet awake erupted from the brunette. He patted the top of her head with his broad hand. “Well said, little duckling. Well said.”

Mamoru, meanwhile, contemplated hiding under the table and never coming out. He should have known better than to give Neil any excuse to tease him while Kain was not in the room. Kain would have eventually shut Neil down, especially when it got too mortifying. “Where is Kain?” he asked, voicing his desire for rescue.

“In his Batcave. I have noticed a distinct lack of IHOP in this country, so we’re going to have to make due.” Neil plopped an overstuffed paper bag on the table. 

Usagi leaned over the bag eagerly. “Oooh what is it? Can I open it?”

“You must be hilarious at Christmas. Of course you can open it, muffin.”

She was practically wiggling from head to toe as she uncrinkled the top of the bag. “Eee! Melonpan!”

“Is that what those are? I just pointed at something and said ‘I want six of those.’”

He should have known better than to be surprised at any of Neil’s eating habits by now, but Mamoru wasn’t sure that playing Russian roulette with his food was his favorite pastime. “Did you really? What if you’d gotten a tripe sandwich?”

“The important thing is that we do not have tripe sandwiches for breakfast. Instead we have melon-things. Melon for breakfast isn’t so bad, right?”

“They don’t actually have any melon in them. They just look like melons,” Mamoru explained, as Usagi pulled out a large bun with criss-crossing lines cut into its surface, like a melon rind.

“Huh. You crazy Japanese with your crazy food. Why can’t you just get Tim Horton’s already and be done with it?”

Mamoru sighed as he turned his attention to the coffee maker. The way that Neil talked about the fabled Tim Horton’s, he was sure that the donuts must have been made of pure gold. “So why are you here with food? This is kind of early for you.”

“Because Mina went flying off my balcony early this morning and I couldn’t get back to sleep. And if I don’t get to spend a blissful morning in bed with a girl, then neither do you.”

Usagi gasped so deeply that she could have Hoovered the cobwebs off the ceiling if Mamoru had not made a point of dusting after his return. “You and Mina?! She didn’t tell me that!” Clutching her half-eaten bun in one hand and hoisting up the hem of Mamoru’s robe in the other, she raced to the bedroom in search of her phone.

Mamoru looked at Neil in surprise. “You and Minako, then?”

Neil gave him a cocky grin. “What, are you surprised? You’ve known me longer than that, bro.”

“It just... seems awfully fast, is all.” He was spending a lot of time with the guys, so of course Mamoru was becoming accustomed to the jokes and the locker room-type banter that occasionally made mention of the many female warriors located around Tokyo, but that was all just talk. He had never hoped for more than civil exchanges between the two groups in the beginning. This was... well, this was something well beyond that. 

Neil shrugged, like hooking up with a powerful guardian of the solar system was no big deal at all. “We hit it off. She’s gorgeous, I’m gorgeous, it works out.”

“So she was... there all night?”

The brunette fished a melonpan bun out of the bag and shoved a chunk of it in his mouth. “You get adorably flustered about sex, for a guy who’s been locked up in his apartment with his girl for two weeks.”

Mamoru found his face burning for a record third time in one conversation. “I just find some things private, is all.”

Neil grinned. “But you’re still curious. Sure, she was there for the night, but what do you think that means? What are you actually trying to ask me?”

Mamoru made an exasperated noise and turned away to fish Usagi’s kitten cup out of the sink. “Never mind. Forget that I asked.”

“Aw, c’mon. You know you want to know. All you have to do is ask. Here, I’ll start. ‘Hey Neil, did you and Mina...’”

“I’m not playing your game.”

“Sure you are. Now, ‘did you and Mina...’”

Mamoru spotted a loophole. “do anything last night?”

“Of course we did. We did many things. We ate, we laughed, we snuggled under the covers...”

“Yes, but did you...”

Neil leaned back, watching him with smug amusement. “Did we what? Play baseball? Dance the tango? I don’t know what you’re trying to ask me, here.”

“They didn’t,” Usagi chimed in, before Mamoru could further embarrass himself. She climbed into a kitchen chair, folding her legs up inside the robe, and fished out another bun. “Mina says they just cuddled and kissed a bunch.”

Neil gave her a hurt look. “Here I brought you all this food as a token of my friendship, and you put a stop to my fun.”

Usagi giggled. “Sounds like you already had your fun.”

The brunette resumed his grin. “So I did.”

Mamoru desperately tried to figure out when his sweet, innocent girlfriend of the fluffy duckling pajamas had become as adept at sexual banter as the man who had bedded Mamoru’s own microbiology TA, thus making labs exceptionally awkward for the rest of the semester.

“Don’t worry, I’ll get all the details from Mina later.” Usagi sighed, and pouted into the glass of strawberry milk that Mamoru set before her. “I can’t believe she’s been seeing you for over a week and she hasn’t told me.”

“Does she usually tell you about every date she goes on?”

The blonde nodded morosely. “Mmm-hmm.”

“Well, you’ve obviously been rather,” Neil smirked, “busy.” 

Mamoru rolled his eyes as he set two mugs of coffee down, alongside a bag of sugar. “Alright, alright.”

Neil helped himself to the sugar, scooping in two heaping spoonfuls. “Got any cream?”

“We have strawberry milk.”

The brunette seemed to be genuinely considering it. “Hmm, bitter black crap or weirdly flavored pink milk?”

Mamoru took a seat and scooped only a single spoonful of sugar into his mug. “Coffee and strawberries sounds very... wrong to me.”

“No, you know what’s wrong? Fucking black coffee. You keep drinking that stuff and you’ll get all dark and bitter like Kain.” His mind clearly made up, Neil opened the fridge like he already lived here and snatched up the carton. 

Mamoru frowned. “Kain’s not bitter.”

“Kain is the bitterest. Asshole keeps moving my shit off the bathroom counter because he thinks it’s too much clutter. I think he is also actively bleaching every surface that I touch.” Neil opened the carton and took a sniff. “Huh. It’s like, the exact color and smell that you would imagine a My Little Pony to be. Do you think they extract it from real ponies?”

Usagi paused mid-gulp, her eyes wide as though for one brief moment, she thought that she was drinking pony extract.

Mamoru glared--a rare occurrence under any circumstance. Teasing _him_ was one thing, but teasing Usagi was an entirely different matter. “Stop it.”

Neil did not fail to notice the sudden change. He glanced from Mamoru to Usagi, who was looking uncertainly into her glass. “Of course, by ponies I mean ‘strawberries.’ My bad. I always mix those two up. Any bets on how pink this makes my coffee?”

Usagi looked thoughtfully from her glass to Neil’s coffee cup, no longer squicked out by the thought of drinking pony juice. “It’s really a very light pink, isn’t it? I don’t think it’s enough to make your coffee pink.”

“My bet is that it makes your coffee taste like garbage.”

“My coffee is already garbage due to lack of cream. There is no saving it from that.” He poured it in, and a bloom of pale pink swirled in the cup for a moment, before it was overwhelmed by the coffee’s dark shade. “So what are you kids up to today? More of this early honeymoon stuff?”

Usagi giggled. “I never really thought of it like that! Mama needs me to do family stuff today, though. But that’s okay, because I know Mamochan really wants to see his bike even if he won’t say it.”

Had he been that obvious? The motorcycle had been weathering the winter in Haruka’s garage, which surely made it the safest and most pampered any bike had ever been, but he may have mentioned wishing to take it off her hands once. Or twice. Or... maybe a bit more than that. 

Neil smirked. “I may need to see this, just so I can finally learn to reconcile ‘science nerd’ with ‘killer-ass motorcycle.’”

“Do you want to come with me? Jaden’s been begging me for a look, too.”

Neil yawned. “Nah, Mina and I have plans to see the Yomiuri Giants play this afternoon.”

Mamoru vaguely remembered that Minako was nearly as big into sports as Neil was. Maybe they _were_ a match made in heaven.

“Hey, before you go? Want to swing by my place and confiscate Kain’s bleach from him? Seriously, I think it’s starting to eat through the tile.”

Usagi tilted her head, curious. “Is he really that much of a neat freak?”

“The man is like Lady Macbeth. Especially when he’s cranky. Put him in a bad mood, and suddenly he’s seeing spots everywhere.”

The blonde blinked her big innocent blue eyes at him. “He sees spots?”

“Damned ones, even.”

“What do you mean, cranky?” Neil often liked to tease Kain for being a less than cheerful man, but now that he thought about it, Mamoru had barely heard from Kain since arriving in Tokyo. He had just sort of assumed that Kain was giving him space to be with Usagi, but even when Mamoru called to check in last night (he was well in the habit of doing so every couple of days now, as he inevitably caught a lecture if he did not. Well, Kain lectured. Neil just walked uninvited into Mamoru’s dorm at any hour of the day to eat his stash of chocolate and “make sure you’re alive”), Kain had seemed rather abrupt, and ended the call soon after. 

“I don’t know, cranky. Maybe he found a thread loose in his boxer-briefs.” Neil took a swig of his strawberry coffee. “You know, it’s not bad once you get used to it. I’ve had worse.”

Usagi giggled. “If I drank coffee, I would definitely want it to be strawberry coffee.” She gulped down her pink milk, then stood and planted a quick kiss on Mamoru’s cheek. “I’m going to take a shower! Have fun petting your bike.” 

Since she had four feet of hair to contend with, Mamoru knew it would be a good 45 minutes before she emerged from the bathroom again. “I will. Say hello to your family for me.” She flitted from the kitchen, his oversized robe trailing on the floor behind her.

Neil watched her go. “Are you aware that you’re marrying a Disney princess? Are birds now going to fly in the window and help her get dressed?”

Mamoru snorted. “That would be nice. The amount of time that it takes her to get ready in the morning is staggering.”

The brunette smirked. “The joys of a high-maintenance woman. It’s alright, I’m pretty sure the biggest reason that Mina keeps going on morning patrols is so she can transform at our place instead of hauling all her cosmetics over.”

“So what did you mean before, about Kain? Is something going on?”

His smirk died, and dark brown eyes darted to the bathroom door down the hall. In a moment, the shower could be heard, and Neil seemed to relax a bit. 

Mamoru began to feel uneasy. “Don’t you trust her?”

He shook his head. “I just don’t think some things are anybody else’s business. Kain’s already going to have my head for talking to you about this.”

“About what?”

Neil swirled his strawberry coffee in the dark blue mug that Mamoru had provided him. All of Mamoru’s kitchen utensils were plain, in solid matching colors. All except the ones that Usagi brought or made him buy her, of course. It was strange, but after so many months of using the mismatched cups in the Shitennou house, these ones felt sort of lacking in personality, like they belonged in a hotel room. “I take it he hasn’t spoken to you at all, then.”

Mamoru shook his head, and irrationally, he felt a little hurt that one of them was having a problem that he had heard nothing about. Especially Kain, who Mamoru was slowly learning to trust and reach out to when he needed someone to confide in. Maybe Kain did not trust him the same way, and why should he? Neil had known Kain for much longer, and the two of them had been through far more together. 

Neil scowled, and ran his hand through his dark curls, causing half of them to stand on end and make him look like an unkempt, unshaven homeless man. “Of course he hasn’t. The man could be bleeding to death and he wouldn’t tell a soul.”

“So what makes you think there’s something wrong?”

“He’s been limping. For like, three days, now. And he gets defensive when I ask, which means he’s either embarrassed about how it happened, or it actually really hurts and he doesn’t want to admit it.” 

Mamoru sat up in alarm. “He’s injured? And he hasn’t done anything about it?” This did not sound like the Kain he knew at all. Not the reliable, practical man who was always lecturing Mamoru about taking care of himself, who made Mamoru come over regularly just to make sure he ate at least one balanced meal a week. 

Neil shrugged. “I think he’s icing it, but... You know how an injured animal will just hide in a dark hole and snarl at anything that comes near it?”

“But how did it happen?”

“I don’t know, he’s been running a lot. He goes out every morning before the sun’s up.”

“Every day? You’re sure?”

“The shower at our place is loud as fuck, and he always showers right after a run. That man is married to his rituals.”

“Yeah, but...” Mamoru and Kain had started running together in the spring. They had developed a firm training schedule, one that included consistent rest days. Kain knew as well as he did that running every single day prevented the body from repairing muscle and increased the chance of injury. “This just doesn’t sound like him.”

“That’s because you’ve only ever seen Kain’s happy side.” Neil paused, and considered that statement. “Wait, no. Kain has no happy side. You’ve only ever seen Kain’s slightly less grumpy side.”

“And he has... other sides?”

“The side you know is Batman and the other sides are... more Batman. They increase in Batman-ness. He has multiple layers of Bat.”

Mamoru had had enough superhero movies forced upon him in recent months to sort of follow what Neil was getting at. “I need to go see him,” he concluded.

The brunette stuffed half a bun into his mouth. “Tha’s wha’ I bee’ sayin’.”

“But what makes you think he’ll talk to me and not you?”

Neil swallowed the bread and washed it down with a gulp of coffee. “He might not, but if he gets pissed off from you asking, he won’t tear your face off.”

***  
 _  
All of Venus’s sources had told her that the girl was a strong choice. She was cunning, discrete, careful. She had deft, delicate fingers that could slip messages into pockets not her own, and big innocent eyes that no guard would question. And the way she sat on her cushion, just a hint of her leg exposed beneath her skirts, was subtly seductive--not enough to seem deliberate, but enough to plant certain ideas. Yes, the girl knew what she was doing, and this pleased her princess very much._

_She was not blonde, however. This detail the princess had stressed with the utmost importance._

_The girl’s cushion was thick and luxurious, but where she had only one on which to perch, Venus lounged in several. She crossed her ankles, which were adorned with delicate gold chains, on the pillow on which they were propped, plucked a white grape from a gold serving dish, and settled in to hear the girl’s report. “Cytherea, my noble servant. I trust you have much to tell me about Earth?”_

_“I do, your highness. The Prince and his attendants have been most generous. Before I detail my report, please allow me to present to you a gift from the High Commander, Lord of the Northern Lands.”_

_Venus was used to gifts. Statues carved in her likeness, great vast seas bearing her name, towers erected in her honor. Out of habit, she cast her eyes around the room, expecting servants to be rolling in some giant rock with her face on it, but the servants at the door remained where they were. Instead, Cytherea held out a small box, only a little larger than the palm of her delicate hand._

_The princess felt a spark of intrigue. Was it his idea of a joke, to openly present such a small thing to the princess of Venus, or was there truly something valuable inside?_

_She found herself leaning slightly forward, to better see the box, and compensated by plucking another grape from its stem, and settling back again. “How kind. Please open it.”_

_Inside the box was a small golden comb with long spindly teeth, a sort that she had seen Earth women use to pin up their hair at formal occasions. It had no glittering gemstones, no pearls or diamonds. Only a sprig of delicate golden leaves._

_She remembered eyes like polished steel, and a cold voice that masked the hidden bite of humor in his words when he mocked her for being a mere babysitter to her wayward princess. That first time they had met, surrounded by ivy and the buzz of cicadas in the gardens of the Earth kingdom, he had caught her sneaking in like a common rogue, and from that day he had not looked at her as Crown Princess of one of the most noble and powerful planets of the Sol system._

_And now, he sends her this trinket. That man... he was indeed mocking her._

_“How nice,” she said, with the appropriate measure of boredom. “Please have it brought to my chambers, so I may inspect it more closely at my leisure.”_

_The lady Cytherea passed the comb off to a pair of servants (for surely no possession of the Princess’s, even one so small, required any less than an entourage to escort it), and then began outlining, in rich and painfully boring detail, the political workings that she had observed on Earth. Venus was normally a very attentive listener, but now she found herself distracted._

_The last time she had seen the High Commander, he was cleaning up the mess she’d made of his troops. Well, they were her troops, after all, and she could make a mess of them whenever she felt like doing so. She could make them lose their heads, lose their footing, lose hold of the weapons they wielded. He had kept his back to her until he’d sent nearly every soldier under his command diving into that big freezing lake, and she had watched that broad back, waiting, wondering. What would he do when he turned to face her? Would he lose his head as his men did? Would he leer as Nephrite did? Would he despise her for what she had done?_

_When there was nobody left to bark orders to, his shoulders settled and he went still. Then he had turned to face her, and his face was unreadable as ever. But he had strode forward, and paused briefly by her side. The back of his hand brushed softly against the tips of her long hair as he locked eyes with her, though he barely moved his arm, and to an outside observer, the proximity of her hair to his hand might seem incidental. “It is customary in our lands for a lady to tie her hair up before leaving her chambers,” he said softly._

_Venus, for the first time, felt entirely lost. Had he nothing to say about her glimmering bosoms? Nothing about the hips that she had very carefully swayed beneath the transparent silks? She, the goddess of beauty, stood nearly naked before him, causing dozens of soldiers to fall apart, and all he could do was criticize her HAIR?_

_“Do try to be more... contained next time.”_

_That awful, arrogant man, Venus thought, and at that moment had to lift her wine glass to her lips, in order to hide her smirk._

***

It was amazing how this felt practically normal. Over the past several months, Mamoru had spent more time at the Shitennou house than in his own dorm room. The others had come to treat him as though he lived there already, but no matter how many times Mamoru crashed on that orange couch, Kain still felt the need to sit him down and make him coffee. It was a formal gesture, a very Kain sort of gesture, and he always looked forward to it. Now the kitchen was changed, the country was changed, but the smell of the coffee was the same, and Mamoru was only now realizing how much he had been missing this the past few weeks.

If he had not come prepared with Neil’s warning, he might not have noticed that anything was different, besides the setting. The kitchen was spotless, but Kain always kept a clean kitchen--or as clean as he could, with three housemates to pick up after. He still gave Mamoru the same shadow of a smile when he saw him. He still immediately moved to make a fresh pot of coffee.

But now Mamoru saw that the shadows under his guardian’s eyes were darker than before. He saw the slight change in his movement, more slow and unnatural. There was a slight limp in his step, but only sometimes, like maybe he was trying to hide it for Mamoru’s benefit.

Yes, this was certainly a delicate situation. One that called for subtlety and careful manipulation.

“So...” the Japanese man began awkwardly, drumming his fingers on the entirely spotless kitchen table, “been doing much running lately?”

Kain, who had been reaching up to return the coffee grounds to their appropriate place, paused a moment before closing the cupboard. “You’ve been talking to Neil, haven’t you?”

In retrospect, that was not very subtle at all. “I’m... not at liberty to answer that.”

The pale-haired man rubbed at his temple. “He is a worse gossip than an old maid.”

“I think maybe he’s concerned about you.”

“Doubtful. Is that why you’re here?”

The question threw Mamoru a little. Once upon a time, every visit he made to Kain’s house had been prompted by an invitation. A phone call, a set date and time, a plan. Then, gradually, Mamoru had found his own reasons to be there. A book that he needed to borrow, a translation question. And, sometime in between last fall and now, he had begun to inhabit Kain’s house at any time, without any reason or excuse. “Do you not want me to be?”

Kain brought his hand to his head again, and this time Mamoru wondered whether it was more than a stray gesture. “Of course I do. I would just like Neil to mind his own business.”

Mamoru felt slightly guilty for outing Neil, but it could not be helped now. Trying to hide things from Kain was a nearly futile practice. “So can I take a look? You do know that for chondromalacia, inflammation needs to be treated immediately, or--”

“It’s fine,” he said flatly, pouring coffee into two mugs with his back to Mamoru. 

Somewhere deep inside of the mild-mannered Japanese man was a future doctor and a future ruler, and for a moment it was as though King Endymion himself had reached back through the ages and taken control of his body. Mamoru found himself standing, his stockinged feet planting themselves on the kitchen floor beside his guardian’s, his voice raising. “No. It’s not. This isn’t something you can ignore! Just let me fix this.”

If Kain was surprised at his prince’s sudden assertiveness, he did not show it. He picked up one of the mugs, and held it out. “There is nothing to fix.”

Mamoru made a growl of frustration, and reached not for the mug, but for the hand that held it. “Listen to me, I--”

Skin contact. That was all it took. Just as putting a hand on a live wire turned a small touch into an explosion of electricity, the brief flash of contact triggered a crash of image and feeling in Mamoru. Twisted shadows, a dark city, bodies frozen beneath sheets of ice, their faces contorted in eternal, silent screams. And pain, all sorts of pain. He could see, now. It was easy to ignore such little twitches of pain in a knee, even welcome them, when one has grown so used to so many other kinds of pain.

Something hot seeped into his sock. A brown puddle was spreading across the laminate floor, from a mug that had split into three useless chunks. Mamoru had noted earlier how bland and neutral his own mugs were, and they were comparable to the cheap, generic kitchenware that had come with the furnished apartment. He steadied himself against the counter, heaving deep breaths.

Kain’s hand folded over his shoulder, studiously keeping the fabric of his shirt between them. “I’ve told you that you need to keep yourself better guarded than that.”

Slip-ups happened sometimes. Some people just projected a lot more of themselves out there than Mamoru always remembered to filter out. Usagi was practically a flashing beacon of mood and color, she was so open. But not Kain. Kain always kept a veritable fortress erected around himself. Mamoru was used to dropping his most basic defenses near him, knowing his guardian always had him blocked out. “I’ve never had to, with you.”

***

The sunlight cutting down onto the exposed edges of the balcony was like a wall of heat. Their chairs were situated carefully beneath the shadow of the balcony above, but still the day threatened to be another face-melter. Coffee seemed like a poor choice in this weather, but the two men sipped it determinately anyway, because some comforts were important enough to override all others. 

The city shimmered in the heat, and it seemed almost impossible to imagine it buried beneath a wave of ice. Almost. That thought folded over uncomfortably in Mamoru’s stomach, along with the too hot, too acidic, too dehydrating coffee. “Tell me honestly. Did I force you back here too soon?”

Kain’s tired grey eyes focused on the edge of the city, as far into the distance as could be seen before too many buildings crowded out what was beyond. “I don’t think there could have ever been a time that was not too soon. And you did not force me to do anything. I chose to come with you.”

“Because you felt like you had to.” Mamoru looked him over, taking in his paleness, the rigid way he held himself in his chair. “You think you’d be failing in your duty somehow, if you weren’t.”

“And I would be.”

“There aren’t exactly youma crawling out of the woodwork right now.”

“The youma are not my primary concern.” 

It took Mamoru a moment of staring at him in confusion to work it out. “The senshi? That’s why you came?”

“It would not look good if you had arrived without your full guard.”

“My full--is that the sort of thing you used to think about, back then?” 

“One of us had to.” Kain gave him a look that told Mamoru he was being teased about something he said or did as Endymion. It was like when Usagi’s parents teased her about things she did as a baby--equally beyond his control and unremembered, but destined to haunt him forever. 

“This is different, this isn’t some political delegate, these are my friends and my girlfriend. We’re all on the same side now. We have no reason not to be.”

Kain sipped his coffee, unperturbed. “I am aware of that. I am not certain, yet, that they are.”

For the second time that day, Mamoru had to ask that question that he did not like to ask. “You don’t trust them?”

“I know that you trust them. But I suspect they do not trust me.”

“You don’t know that. They barely know you.”

“I know that they have no reason to.”

Mamoru watched the city, lively and moving despite the heat. Part of him wished he did not see it overlaid with Kain’s nightmares. “I don’t really remember much of that night. I remember the blackout, but I was too late to see the people who--who were frozen.” Mamoru internally shook his head at his failed attempt at covering the near slip. He had almost said “the people who you froze.” “Sailor Moon had already revived them. They _were_ saved.”

Kain’s eyes did not leave the horizon, but Mamoru knew he had not missed the slip either. “It took me under ten minutes to cripple Tokyo. It was... easy.”

“That wasn’t you.”

“It was enough of me to remember it clearly.”

Mamoru thought of Neil, so adamant that he visit Kain today, and wondered how much of this he was aware of. Was he really worried about a limp (which, on inspection, did turn out to be a relatively minor strain that would repair with time, if Kain actually followed his instructions on resting it), or did he suspect that the issue ran deeper than that?

He thought of Mina and Neil, seeing each other so suddenly while Kain still worried over whether the senshi even still viewed them as a threat, and wondered what else Neil knew.


	7. Chapter 7

The shadows stretched long over the streets, and the blinding summer light faded to a haze of cooler orange. In the light of the sunset, a couple walked down the narrow Juuban streets. They did not walk hand-in-hand, or even with their arms around one another, because both their hands were too busy gesticulating wildly, as they ranted angrily as only true sports fanatics can.

“Augh, I just--can you believe that pitcher?!”

“It’s like, is that a baseball you’re throwing, or is it a dead fish? And if you like dead fish so much, do you need me to hide one in your car?”

“Ooh, do you think we can do that?”

“Just direct me to the nearest fish market, and we’ll be all set.”

“Hmm, I wonder how we’d find his car, though.”

“It would be enough to get anybody on the team. I bet they all drive something in the same bland shade of beige to match their bland playing skills.”

Minako giggled, her team outrage temporarily overcome by amusement. “You pick the car, I pick the fish?”

His wide grin easily matched hers. “That is the best date proposal I’ve ever heard.”

They reached a corner, and Mina opened her mouth to counter his statement, but immediately forgot her words when she realized that Neil was moving to turn left while she continued straight on. “We aren’t going to your place?”

The brunette shrugged. He had a way of doing that, looking all relaxed and spontaneous when actually he had been planning something from the start. “Sorry babe, but I pissed in my housemate’s coffee this morning and he’s probably lurking behind the door waiting to shank me the moment I walk inside. I wouldn’t want you to get stuck in the crossfire.”

She stopped, and crossed her arms over her Yomiuri Giants t-shirt. “Are you telling me that I’m not allowed to come up to your place because you’re having some kind of drama with your housemate? What, are you both 13-year-old girls?”

Neil smirked down at her. “I was hoping you wouldn’t notice. I even stopped wearing my hair in pigtails just for you.”

Mina rolled her eyes and continued walking again, this time in the direction Neil had been taking--back to her house. “Ugh, now I have to spend the evening with a cranky cat and my mother. You had better make this up to me.”

“Something you had in mind?”

She beamed up at him, as if she had been waiting for him to ask. “Something glittery.”

***

Kain was not waiting for him right behind the door with a Crocodile Dundee bush knife, which Neil took to be a positive sign. He removed his shoes, and, finding his socks to be sweaty and putrid, removed those as well and left them to stink up the hall. He made his way to the kitchen, opened the fridge, and found it to be recently scrubbed and emptied of the leftover takeout boxes he had stuffed inside. Damn, and one of them had only been three days old, too.

He cracked open a beer and left his sweaty shirt on the kitchen table out of spite.

Kain was sitting in the dark, as usual, but this time he was illuminated by the screen of his open laptop. He sat on the couch with his back to Neil, pale hair lit up and his three-hundred-something-dollar headphones clamped firmly over his ears. Either he did not yet know that Neil was home, or he was decidedly ignoring him, and if Neil was not thanking his good fortune, he would have taken the opportunity to throw something at the back of Kain’s head. Instead he took off his shorts and left them on the living room floor for Kain to trip over later.

Armed with only a pair of red Diesel briefs and a cold bottle of beer, he made his way to the shower. He wanted to clean up and cool off at the same time, and the beer had the added benefit of alcohol.

Fifteen minutes later, Kain’s music abruptly cut off when the headphone cord was ripped from his laptop. He arched his eyebrow at the tall, hairy, dripping wet man who loomed entirely naked above him, and lowered the headphones around his neck. “Have you never heard of a towel?”

“Fuck you, where are they?”

Kain blinked robotically up at him. “I washed them.”

“And then put them where, asshole? Are you telling me you left me exactly one pair of nasty day-old briefs that I’ve been wearing in the hot sun all day, just because I told Mamoru that you’re being a whiny bitchface?” Neil’s hands were gesticulating all over the place, flinging water droplets around the room.

Kain reached up and carefully wiped a water droplet from his screen with his thumb.

Neil bellowed out a stream of fucks, punctuated by a few alternative names for genitalia, and the filthy soliloquy followed him down the hall and into Kain’s bedroom, where a series of bangs could be heard as he started furiously opening and closing drawers. Eventually, he was forced to come storming back. “You asshole! You hid yours too!”

“Obviously,” Kain noted, as he continued to scroll through the news article he had been reading.

“I am going to burn every one of your boring old man history teacher ties!”

“Yes, go after my ties.” Kain clicked a link to a political columnist that he had been following with some interest. “I dare you.”

There was no profanity in the world strong enough to express the brunette’s fury, and he instead growled out a kind of guttural animal cry. “You are the very worst human being ever and I hope you die a painful death of syphilis!”

Neil stomped out of the room, but he was not yet finished with his insults, and immediately stormed back. “And for the record, I didn’t tell him half the shit that I should have. All this shit, the not sleeping, the not talking to anybody, the manic Mr. Clean act? Don’t sit there and act like it’s not something he deserves to know about. He’s trying to take some responsibility for us, and he deserves to be allowed to do that. Sometimes people--people who have to deal with your dick self--deserve more than being pushed away.”

The brunette would have liked to end his speech by throwing something, like a shoe or a very heavy book, but since hurricane Kain had disposed of everything mobile in the living room, he instead kicked the coffee table with his bare foot, swore loudly, and limped back toward his room with all the dignity that an injured, naked hockey player could achieve.

Kain, who had remained immobile through the entire outburst, now sighed and rubbed his eyes. “Neil. Linen closet, top shelf.”

Silence lingered between them a moment. Followed by, “we have a linen closet?”

***

Walking was never entirely as efficient as running. This was, of course, a simple factual statement that any child could understand. Running meant that you got to where you were going much faster. Kain was not really trying to get anywhere. One could even make the argument that he was trying to get away from somewhere. But walking was definitely not going to be as efficient for that purpose as running was.

It was slow, for one. Slow enough to take in his surroundings. Slow enough to see the faces of other pedestrians as he passed. But Mamoru had given him an order to rest his leg, and his prince was so rarely in the habit of giving orders that Kain saw no option other than to respect it.

Secondly, it was not nearly as taxing. When sleep eluded him so completely, running himself into exhaustion had seemed like a good method of snatching a few rare hours of sleep. It meant that he could run early in the day, before anybody else was out, and it was still too dark for those who did to see him. Now, to achieve the same results, he was still outside when dawn broke, overly warm and blinding, over the small Juuban park. 

But, he found, sometimes there was an advantage to taking the slow path in the daylight hours. 

She emerged from the trees as though she belonged in their leafy embrace, zipping down the sidewalk with the speed and grace of a dancer. She easily darted around a pair of running children and a yappy little dog tugging at its leash, before skidding to a stop precisely half a second before she would have crashed headlong into Kain. Kain, for his part, had been calculating exactly how much it would have hurt to have this woman crash into him at high speed, and concluded that the answer was “quite a bit.”

“Hey, I haven’t seen you since the party! Been taking in the sights?” Makoto Kino balanced effortlessly on her rollerblades, her cheeks slightly flushed from exertion and the warm weather. 

“Sort of,” Kain attempted some form of polite answer. He had not practiced civility in a number of days, since the only person he spoke to regularly was Neil, who required none.

“Good, you should enjoy yourself while you’re here.” She stretched, hands bunching into the brunette ponytail gathered at the back of her head. “I never got a chance to thank you for cleaning up and everything, after what happened. Want to come get a cold drink with me?”

He was not sure how long he could keep up with all this smiling and speaking words, but Kain saw no polite way of turning her down, and he certainly did not have anywhere else he needed to be. “Alright.”

She gave him a bright smile, and Kain saw immediately how different Makoto was from the wilted flower she had been a few nights before. She was nearly the same height as him in her roller blades, and when she took him by the arm to lead him to a nearby refreshment stand, he had a feeling that the only thing keeping her from forcibly dragging him was the fact that she was on wheels. 

As the sun slid its way through the muggy summer haze, the two traveled side-by-side down the narrow side streets, Makoto gliding along at an easy pace, carelessly in control of her speed. “That was so embarrassing, though. Honestly! The very first time we’re meeting, and I nearly fry your friend’s face off.”

“To be fair, he was equally responsible.”

“Yeah, but he’s the one who wound up injured. All I got was a nasty headache.”

“There were mitigating circumstances. I’m sure you can be excused for not being able to control the weather.”

“Well,” Makoto smiled, sipping at her green melon Fanta, “not all the time, anyway. I’m sure you never have to deal with this, do you? Maintaining control of your powers?”

Kain kept his eyes trained on the road ahead. Not on the small cars that rolled past, nor on the pedestrians who, on a different day, in a different life, would be more accurately described as innocent bystanders. 

“Oh! Sorry, is that too personal? I didn’t mean--I’m not fishing for information or anything, I just think it’s really nice to have other people to talk to about it, you know?” Possibly, if it were anybody else, Kain would have suspected that there was some hidden motive behind the question. But Makoto seemed nothing but genuine. “I’m definitely the worst about it, but the girls and I have all had something go sideways on us. Poor Ami froze a cup of tea solid once.”

Kain smiled slightly. “I’ve done that.”

“Really? She was mortified. Her mother had friends over and she had to discreetly stash it somewhere where it could melt. Hmm...” she continued to swivel from one skate to the next as she contemplated. “Rei is usually very good, I mean she sits every day in front of the fire and never seems to have any problems, but once she and Usagi started arguing while we were cooking, and... well, let’s just say I keep a fire extinguisher handy in the kitchen now.”

Kain nodded. “It is impressive that she maintains control so easily. Sasha uses fire as well, but I consider it too dangerous to let anybody other than Jaden train with him.”

“Jaden’s water, right? But like rain and rivers and things like that? Mina was trying to explain to me how the storm was bothering him, too.”

“For Jaden, that storm was like being trapped in a small room with a lot of caffeine. Too much potential energy churning away but refusing to go anywhere. Normally it’s enough for him to distract himself until it passes. Sasha is usually good about remembering to keep him occupied.”

The brunette stared wistfully ahead, her casual grin fading. “It sounds like they both balance each other out. It must be nice, to have somebody who you can’t hurt, who can still be there with you.”

***

“If you’re so worried about it, then make a date!”

Mamoru startled out of his stupor, realizing belatedly that he had been staring at the water and, in all likelihood, sighing wistfully for the past ten minutes. Usagi grinned up at him. She was wearing a little yellow sundress with ducks on it, and the hem floated out over the park bench they were sharing. She had let him brood a little longer than she usually did, probably because she had three scoops of ice cream to keep her occupied.

“What? Worried about what?”

“About Kain. It bothers you.” She took a lick of the strawberry scoop of her ice cream. Of course every scoop was a different flavor, and of course it was all covered in sprinkles. “So make a date.”

“Uh.” Mamoru tried to trace the line in Usagi-logic from what he knew to what her conclusion was, and found he could not see it. “What do you mean?”

Usagi sighed, as though it was always her explaining difficult concepts to her boyfriend, and not the other way around. “Mamochan! Honestly, you are so silly sometimes! The problem is that Kain doesn’t feel welcome in Tokyo, right? So make him feel welcome! Get everybody together and do something!”

“Oh.” He supposed that Usagi probably saw everything she did with other people as a date. Friends, family, pets... “Like what?”

She slurped contemplatively at the green tea ice cream that had started to drip down into the pink strawberry layer. “Like the zoo? Or the beach. We could go swimming! Or skating! Because it’s hot! Or... or the Tanabata Festival is soon! We should go all-out! We could wear yukata, and go up in Tokyo Tower--”

“--surrounded by tourists--”

“Oh don’t be a grump. You’re not nice when you’re a grump.” Usagi wrinkled her delicate little nose at him, which was meant to show her displeasure but only made her look cuter. “And Kain and the guys are tourists! It makes sense! Okay, you call Kain and tell him what we’re doing while I ask Mina what to do with my hair.”

Mamoru compliantly pulled out his phone and was in the midst of scrolling through his contacts before he thought to ask, “um, what ARE we doing? Tanabata or zoo or beach?”

“All of it,” Usagi was balancing her ice cream in one hand and texting with the other. “Maybe not in that order? How long until Tanabata? We’d better do as much as we can before then. Do you think Setsuna and her family will want to come?”

Mamoru could already tell that this was going to be complicated.


	8. Chapter 8

“This is the one I want.”

Neil eyed the object in her hand. It was glittery. Actually, it seemed a bit gaudy, but he had no eye for these sorts of things, other than that it fell squarely into the category of “girly shit.”

“You seem awfully sure. You don’t want to browse the other rhinestone-encrusted stuff? Look, they have cellphone covers that make your phone look like a Lady Gaga video.”

“Nope.” Mina, not even waiting until they reached the checkout, reached up and removed her red bow.

He supposed he should thank his lucky stars that Mina’s definition of “glittery” was a tacky accessory instead of... well, certain meaningful articles of jewelry that were far too expensive in more ways than one for a summer fling. Like pendants. Or rings. As she slid the ribbon from her blonde locks and stuck it in her mouth, just the smallest sliver of her teeth biting down on the red fabric, showing beneath her full lips, he was reminded that a summer fling was delicious as hell. And worth the cost of a tacky hair accessory.

***

Kain flipped his phone closed as he stepped through the door. Now he got to deal with the fallout of Neil’s big mouth. Now he had to face the prospect of more people, more putting on a front, more dodging delicate topics. He remembered doing this sort of thing all the time in his past life, and for some reason, it seemed to come easy to him then.

Well, of course it had. The rules had been clear, the borders drawn with precision. Play for your team, guard your side, and make gains when you can. It was easy to keep a secret when you saw its value, easy to lie in the face of your opponents when they were your opponents and not... whatever they were now.

Now they were like some sort of extended family, reconnecting for the first time since they were almost too young to remember one another. Too close for comfort but not close enough to breed any sort of security. And always waiting to see who would be the first to bring up the skeletons in the closet.

There was a second pair of shoes next to Neil’s in the hall. Strappy flip-flops, with gold heart charms dangling from where the straps would meet over the toes. Kain removed his own crisp white high end running shoes and left them beside hers.

He found them on the balcony. Laughing, as they always did when they were together. She turned her head, and something glinted in the sun. Her hair was partially swept back as usual, creating a graceful curve over her ear, but where before her hair met with red bow, now a little golden comb, spiked with rhinestones, perched like an exotic bird surveying the city streets below.

He watched them for only a moment more. Then Kain turned around, put his shoes back on, and stepped back out of the apartment. Perhaps Sasha and Jaden were overdue for a visit. Perhaps Mamoru and Usagi would like him to spend time with them sooner than expected. Perhaps he could just continue walking the city, keep walking until the sun set and he had crossed the distance between here and the ocean, city lights giving way to an endless sea of black water.

It was late at night when he returned. The apartment was dark, and no noise stirred behind Neil’s closed door. But on the nightstand beside Kain’s bed, the comb was waiting for him.

***

_The golden comb glistened brilliantly in the dark chestnut tresses at the back of Cytherea's head. Whereas Venus's own hair cautiously hid it, holding its value close and secret, on her servant it glistened like a finely cut citrine laid on a bed of velvet. The princess plucked the comb from its dark throne and watched the brown curls slide down over the back of Cytherea's delicate neck, spilling onto exposed shoulder blades. "Like this?"_

_Her servant's breath came in hitched gasps. "Yes, your highness."_

_"And if I am to understand correctly…" Venus lightly dragged the comb's sharp teeth down the length of Cytherea's arm, leaving faint red welts. The girl's hand tightened its grip on the post of Venus's bed. "his hand was just… here?"_

_The servant squeaked. She was very good at playing her part. "To be precise…" she gasped, "it was… a little higher…"_

_Venus slid her other hand further up Cytherea's thigh, the hem of her silk dress tickling at Venus's wrist. The servant leaned back into her, gauzy silk sliding against her heated skin. Venus dipped her mouth close to Cytherea's ear, as she scraped the comb over her shoulder, across her collarbone. "Instruct me further. I want to know precisely how well the Commander enjoyed my gift to him."_

_The servant giggled. “Ah, this next part may require some skill to replicate, your highness. How strong is your back?”_

***

_It was rare for Kunzite to find himself away from the capitol for any length of time without a prince to watch over, let alone this extended stay at a remote military outpost on a poorly tended highway in the woods. But he and Endymion, after much deliberation, were in agreement: this shaky alliance with Venus was of the utmost importance, and if training up a bunch of soft, overspoiled Venusian soldiers was what it would take to strengthen relations at this crucial point in history, then so be it. Endymion could get by with only three guardians (and the entire military and castle guard, of course) to watch over him, while Kunzite spent his days making fair-skinned boys march through the woods._

_The commander’s quarters were sparsely furnished, with bare wood floors and only a faded tapestry of the royal crest decorating one wall. He was afforded a proper bed and a writing desk, which was more than any of the soldiers beneath him could say about their barracks, and it was clean enough, after a pair of recruits had scrubbed every inch of it as punishment for tardiness. He was at the desk now, documenting the progress of his troop (thoroughly and in triplicate, naturally) when one such recruit marched in._

_Kunzite nodded at the soldier’s brisk solute. “So you have returned from your mission. With a positive report, I hope?”_

_The soldier betrayed very little of his opinion on the matter, a skill that Kunzite had been cultivating in him. “I believe the situation was as you predicted.”_

_“Good. I will need to hear your report in detail.”_

_Kunzite watched the young man close and lock the door, taking the initiative without needing to be directed. There were many among the Queen’s court who claimed to know why the Venusian soldiers were, thus far, failing to meet Elysian standards. Venusians were just born soft, they joked. They were meant to pose prettily and compose charming poetry, not march through the muddy woods into battle with terrifying monsters._

_Kunzite knew better. The soldiers were not born deficient. They, quite simply, did not know what battle was. Their villages did not suffer raids from bloodthirsty monsters or men, their monarchs were not at risk of being forcibly de-throned. Joining the Venusian military must have looked like an excuse to march around gilded streets in a pretty uniform._

_But this one was ambitious, and he learned fast. He was eager to prove himself, and cunning enough not to show his eagerness to many. Rising through the ranks could provide him an opportunity for prestige that he had not enjoyed on his own planet._

_In short, he made the perfect spy._

_Kunzite set his quill in its place, and sat back in his chair. “Well then, Adonis. Tell me of your journey home.”_

***

Makoto tried not to laugh. She had a feeling that he would get slightly offended if she laughed, and she even nearly managed to stifle her grin. Nearly. “It’s not that bad.”

“No, it is worse than I thought.” Kain was possibly the grumpiest person that she knew, and it was hard to say why she found it so unintentionally funny when the grump factor increased. It was the way his normally stoic face found the muscles to frown.

"He does wear a helmet."

"There are dozens of scenarios in which a helmet would not help in the slightest." Kain stared over at the exotic bird cage as though wishing harm upon the large green parrot that kept producing a loud and obnoxious squack.

They had met up outside of the zoo's front entrance. It was little surprise that Usagi and Mamoru were the last to arrive--Mamoru was very punctual, Usagi not so much. But when the two of them had pulled up on that motorcycle, Makoto thought that Kain might possibly have a stroke.

"He has survived the worst threats this world has seen. I think he'll survive the traffic."

“I was expecting something smaller, slower. More like an electric scooter."

"I'm sure he drives carefully. This is Mamoru that we're talking about."

"He's got a hidden reckless streak, trust me."

Maybe it was funny because somebody as big and intimidating as Kain was never meant to fuss like an old grandmother. Makoto swirled her straw in her drink, watching the little ice cubes swish around. Kain had spent most of the morning being grumpy and aloof, while everyone else latched onto Usagi’s enthusiasm and eagerly raced from one exhibit to another, “oooh”-ing appreciatively over pandas and tigers. Kain had politely excused himself from the group to sit at one of the zoo’s cafes, pehaps, Makoto thought, because his knee was bothering him again.

It was then, as they were watching beady-eyed penguins waddle around their tank, that Makoto looked around and realized that without Kain to balance the numbers, she was suddenly alone with two couples. Rei had not come (of course), Ami had a lecture to attend, and who knew what those blond troublemakers, Sasha and Jaden, got up to on their own. So there she was, trapped between Usagi clinging to Mamoru’s arm and Mina running her fingers through Neil’s hair. The cafe suddenly seemed like a much better option.

“Well he almost always drives with Usagi these days, which is naturally going to make him more cautious.”

“Do you not mind her riding around on that thing?” The question could have sounded accusatory, but his frustrations were clearly not directed at Makoto or her princess.

“That girl has fought off threats to the planet’s very existence. In a fight between her and the motorbike, I would not put any money on the bike.”

This seemed to appease Kain a little, and he shifted into a moody-but-companionable silence. She liked Kain. He was polite, low-key, and knew what a frittata was. Of course, five minutes of being around him had informed her that, though he had a chiseled jaw like no other and knew how to navigate a kitchen, she had no interest in him as a romantic partner. He was too closely guarded. Too distant. Nice to be around as a friend, but probably trying to connect on a deep emotional level would be like pulling teeth.

Just look at the pair of them, moping together in the shade of the cafe while their friends ran around this childhood dreamland. Stark contrast to the couple that wandered into view now--golden hair, dark chocolate stubble, hands around waists, laughter. Mina and Neil must have left Usagi and Mamoru to their own devices, and now they found a low stone wall not far from the cafe, and Mina pulled herself up to sit on it so that she was eye-level with Neil. The two of them looked like a pair of Hollywood stars, big mirrored sunglasses and matching cocky grins. They were so aggressively happy together, like they needed the world to see them.

But maybe they just seemed that way because Makoto was here, brooding beside the king of broodiness. Nothing highlighted loneliness so much as the reminder of what others had together. She fiddled with her straw some more, and was annoyed to find nothing left in the glass except a few sorry chunks of unmelted ice. “Kain, what can Neil do?”

“Eat, mostly.” He was messing with his phone, probably texting Mamoru to make sure he had not fallen in the alligator tank, but she had a feeling that he had spotted the couple as well.

“I mean, Sasha controls fire and Jaden water and I think you’re ice or maybe just cold...”

He neither confirmed nor denied her speculation on his powers, so she took that to mean she was at least partly correct. “He doesn’t actually use magic much, but when he does, he has an affinity for metal.”

Something clicked into place. “Oh.”

“Is that important?”

“At the party...” Makoto floundered a moment. She had been over this memory a thousand times already but never formulated the words to explain it to someone else. “There was so much happening, but before everything happened Usagi and Mamoru were right there in front of me and they should have been hit, but... when I released all that lightning, that was my first thought, that I was going to hit Usagi, and I turned to her like I thought I could do something, like you can possibly take lightning back. But it was Neil standing there instead. Like he’d jumped in front of her. And I never heard anyone say he was injured, so I guess...”

“He was fine.”

And that just figured. All her life she had been too big, too hostile, and then just too full of potentially deadly electricity, to be with just about anyone. Now she knew there was somebody in the world who could withstand all of those things, and there he was, standing so close to her best friend that they nearly kissed.

The universe was most definitely laughing at her.


	9. Chapter 9

There are many ways to display anger at a roommate.

First and foremost, make sure to slam the door upon entering the premises. The slam must be just hard enough to make the nicknacks in every apartment in the building rattle on their shelves. 

Note that his shoes are the first of his belongings within your line of sight, and give them a sharp kick. When they fly down the hallway and bounce off a wall, you can be satisfied in the knowledge that he will be forced to compulsively wipe down both wall and floor later.

There will be nothing to break in the kitchen that will not impact your damage deposit, so kick a chair. It will hurt, but kick it anyway. The clatter of it hitting the floor will help alert him of his impending demise.

You will find him sitting very still in the living room, acting as though he has not heard you coming. Yet neither his laptop nor his cellphone are within view, preventing you from shattering either of them against the wall. He is reading a book, and unfortunately, it is not a hardcover, and therefore can inflict no damage to his head.

Do not speak, or even shout. Words are for those whose muscles do not rage with the fire of a thousand frustrated volcanoes.

Since he is sitting, you cannot punch him in the kidneys or the solar plexus, somewhere where it would _really_ hurt. You will have to settle for his face.

That is okay. You are unchained fury. You will make do.

The screaming pain in your hand will alert you to the fact that his jaw is probably made of iron, and hitting him a second time would be inadvisable. But you have actually made that smug bastard bleed, just once, and he knows exactly why.

Throw his book off the balcony out of spite.

***

Two hours prior, Neil was in a significantly more pleasant mood. Hell, he had been downright jubilant. He was in a zoo, in a foreign country, with penguins, and a beautiful blonde on his arm. 

Neil was many things, but he was not naive. He knew that this was all a game, for her as much as for him. The very best kind of game, in which they got to enjoy one another’s company while they played it. Only, he had hoped, by now, that he would have figured out whether they were playing the same one. He had a strong suspicion that they were not. And that was going to be a problem. Because Neil was fairly secure in the knowledge that the game he was playing was (mostly) harmless. He had pursued Mina with ulterior motives, to be sure, but were she to discover and take offense at this, he had not done anything that he did not trust his charm to smooth over. If she was playing by the same game, then he would call that fair. 

They walked arm-in-arm through the zoo, having left Usagi and Mamoru behind because they had to stop and coo over every goddamned creature they came across. The zoo could have put a pigeon in a cage and those two would still gawk for ages, making noises of delight every time it shat white poo everywhere. 

This was better anyway, he thought, as the goddess with gold-spun hair led him to a low stone wall in front of the parrot cage, and pulled herself up to sit on it. Like this, her mirrored sunglasses were level with his own, and he could see the perfect heart-shaped pout of her lips without needing to look down. An enormous green parrot gave a deafening cry just above their heads. Neil winced. “That’s definitely a good alternative to conversation.”

She smirked teasingly. “You don’t fancy the wildlife?”

“Oh I’m all about the wildlife. I’m a rugged mountain man, remember? I wrestle bears naked in my free time.”

She giggled, stretching across the short distance between them to run her fingers over his stubbled cheek. “Is that why you keep trying to look like one?”

“Of course. It’s easier to sneak up on a bear if they mistake you for one of their own. Camouflage, you know.”

She was wearing a pair of tiny denim shorts and various tank tops layered on top of each other (why did girls do that? In Neil’s mind, putting on one shirt in the morning was almost too much effort), letting him see her honeyed skin, lightly glowing with perspiration beneath the hot sun. She wore an ornate key-shaped pendant on a chain, and this she kept playing with, long fingers dancing at her throat. He knew what those delicate fingers could do, how soft that throat was, and it was not an unpleasant sight to watch.

But still, something about this was… ah. There it was.

In the reflection of her mirrored sunglasses, something white caught his eye. Casually, he stole a glance behind him, and confirmed his suspicions. Kain, sitting across from them. Staring into his phone, pretending not to see the two of them sitting in the sunlight directly in his line of sight, practically on stage with a spotlight shining down. She had placed the two of them here for him to see, and no other reason.

Neil reached up, gently took hold of Mina’s sunglasses, and slid them up onto her head. He wanted to see those bright blue eyes that hid secrets behind laughter. “I wonder if you can help me solve a puzzle, sweetheart.”

Her eyebrow raised. “Oh?”

“Say somebody was enthusiastically dating one person while making eyes at another. How would you make sense of their behavior?”

If she was surprised, she did not show it. Her smile was languid, like a leopard stretching out in the sun. “Maybe, for this person, one is simply not enough.”

He grinned back at her, keeping up the game. “If you wanted to talk about an open relationship, all you had to do was ask. I don’t do polyamory, though, if that’s what you’re thinking. Least of all with a grumpy-ass Kiwi who organizes his sock drawer.”

She leaned forward, close enough that moving into a kiss would have taken very little movement at all. “Sounds to me like you’re jealous, sweetie.”

Neil’s grin did not fade. He met her eyes through his dark aviators. “Nah. See, that’s the funny thing. I thought maybe this was about jealousy before. I figured you were just trying to get my commander all hot and bothered. But he’s not acting like a jealous man, and you don’t seem to mind whether he’s jealous or not. So either you’re very bad at this, which I really doubt, or there is something else going on here.”

Her perfect heart-shaped lips smiled. “What does it matter, if we’re having fun?”

“It’s just that if we’re going to keep playing this game, I’d like to know which rulebook we’re following. I like to know how I should be keeping score.”

Her eyes flickered. A little bit of gold glitter sparkled on her lids. “You first.”

He chuckled. “Me? You already know, sweetheart. I’m forging relationships between our teams. Showing you how lovable I can be so you’ll be less inclined to string me up by your pretty gold chain the moment we step into battle.”

“Mm, simple and practical.” She played with the key necklace. “That sounds like the sort of plan your commander would come up with.”

Neil snorted. “Hardly a plan. You think that guy knows the first thing about ladies? All he said was to make myself endearing. The rest is all me.”

Mina leaned back, one hand on the wall, one knee crossed over the other. “Though I’m sure he knew that your definition of ‘endearment’ where women are concerned usually involves getting under their skirts.”

Neil’s grin turned wolfish. “Is there any quicker way to illustrate my best qualities?”

She ran a finger down his stubbled jawline. “You’ve got me there. Last night was... nice.” She gazed up into the trees. Neil knew she was smart enough not to glance in Kain’s direction, though she could almost certainly see him still watching from her peripheral vision. The parrot shuffled above her in the cage, huge wings sounding like the pages of an enormous book rustling together. “You notice a lot. In the past, nobody ever caught on.”

“Caught on to what, exactly?”

“It would have been politically dangerous if we were discovered. We were cautious, so cautious. Only twice did we ever share a bed, even though…” Her eyes were distant, her smile gone. “But we wanted so much more. The glances, the occasional whispers… they were never enough. So we took to sending each other gifts.”

Neil blinked in confusion. “Gifts?”

“Your commander does not wish to see me right now. I don’t pretend to know why. I almost thought he was cutting us off completely. But then, he sent me a gift. Just like he used to.”

Kain did spend all day brooding, but he was so secretive about the smallest things that it would not have surprised Neil if he had purchased and mailed a gift at some point without telling him. “Okay, so he sent you a trinket. What’s that got to do with whatever we’re doing here?”

Mina watched him with amusement. “A trinket? Oh honey, I think you can be a little kinder to yourself than that.”

Slow realization crept up on Neil like being pulled down into ice-cold quicksand. “He… but you…” all traces of his smile had drained from his face, along with a certain portion of blood. “But I picked you! I could have gone after any of them but I went for you!”

Her expression might have almost been sympathetic, if he could not see that she was enjoying this, just a little bit. “Out of all the women at that party, you went after the one who was already flirting with you? How surprising.”

Neil leaned his hands on the wall on either side of her, his head swimming, wishing he could sit down without having to move closer to the cafe where Kain still sat. “So these… these gifts…”

“Handmaidens, mostly. One eager soldier who liked card tricks. A very strong stable boy.” She giggled at the memory.

He groaned. “Am I your stable boy?”

She twirled the key necklace in her fingers. “Do you want to be?”

Above him, the parrot gave a shrill cry.

***  
_  
Kunzite left the pretty young Venusian sleeping in his bed. He had brought home some interesting techniques from his mother planet, and Kunzite would not have been surprised if the princess of Venus herself had invented some of them._

_Adonis had brought no written note, no message that could be intercepted. Only a simple golden comb, now resting on Kunzite’s desk. Tag, the comb said. You’re it.  
_

***

If he was looking for sympathy, he had come to the wrong place. “It’s not funny,” Neil grumbled.

Jaden was gasping for breath. He had laughed himself nearly purple in the face. Sasha smirked. “Which part? The part where she outplayed you? Or the part where _he_ outplayed you?”

“They didn’t outplay me, they… involved me in their weird kinky courtship ritual!” Neil was gesturing wildly, sloshing beer all over Sasha and Jaden’s floor. He was not drunk, he was too angry to drink. He just liked having the beer bottle in his hand. Luckily neither of them had Kain’s attitude towards cleanliness, and did not fix him with murderous glares for the mess. “It’s no wonder that asshole never gets laid.”

“Ooh, that’s the part that really stings you, isn’t it?” Sasha’s grin was positively wicked. “You got outplayed by the _house virgin_.”

“He didn’t outplay me!”

“Do you think he’ll need to send her any more gifts?” Jaden asked, just barely holding back his laughter. “I wouldn’t mind being somebody’s stable boy for a day.”

Sasha shrugged. “There’s always Christmas, birthdays, anniversaries…”

“She might not want me, though. Not after she’s had that piece of rugged Canadian manflesh giftwrapped for her.”

“It is not. that. funny.” Neil felt like a bull ready to charge, and Jaden’s face, red from laughter, was becoming an attractive target. “You’re not helping!”

Jaden had practically draped himself across the kitchen table, after the last fit of giggles prevented him from remaining upright. “I’m sorry, were we supposed to be helping?” 

Sasha’s grin matched his fellow blond’s. “What did you have in mind? Retaliatory sex with one of them?”

“Ooh, or both.” Jaden’s blue eyes met Sasha’s green ones across the table. “I’ll be Miss Aino’s stableboy for a day, you take Kain?”

Sasha leaned his chin on his hand contemplatively. “Hmm, the prettier of the two, and the most boring. Can’t we draw straws for this?”

“You two are hopeless,” Neil grumbled. Clearly he would be getting no sympathy in this kitchen.

Jaden remained sprawled where he was, but rested his chin on his arm. “You know, he might not be as vanilla as we all thought he was.”

Sasha smirked. “Hooking up your best friend with your lady, that’s pretty kinky stuff. Do you think he was watching?”

“Maybe. Did you find any hidden cameras in your room?”

Neil felt the beer churn unpleasantly in his stomach. “No!” He met both their amused faces. “No! Fuck you, stop trying to mess with me!”

Jaden pulled out his phone. “Only one way to find out!” A few quick taps, and his phone was ringing out on speaker.

Kain answered after precisely two rings. “What.”

Jaden started to speak, but he dissolved into silent laughter instead, burying his face in his arms. Sasha leaned towards the outstretched phone. “We heard you like to watch.”

There was a groan of annoyance, followed by a click. Neil was the only one in the room not cackling in glee. This must have been what Kain felt like all the time, he thought sourly. “You are the worst friends ever.”

Sasha fake-pouted at him. “Aw, is poor Neil upset that the pretty blonde lady let him see her tits?”

“They were tits with an ulterior motive,” he grumbled, downing what little beer he had not managed to slosh all over the laminate floor.

“Unlike yours, obviously.”

“Which? His tits or his ulterior motives?” asked Jaden.

“Well his tits aren’t anything to write home about,” Sasha said. 

“My tits are magnificent,” Neil groused. 

“You went in with an ulterior motive and you suspected she did too. So where is the problem, exactly?”

“Because,” Neil grumbled, “there’s a difference between playing a game and losing, and _thinking_ you’re playing a game but finding out you weren’t really playing. You were just somebody’s… tool. I don’t like that. I don’t plan on being anybody’s tool.”

“So in the great hockey game of life, you’re Mina’s stick?” Jaden grinned. “Or are you the puck?”

“Ooh, I hope he’s the puck,” said Sasha. “Then he can tell us all about Kain’s slapshot.”

Neil decided that he needed another beer.


	10. Chapter 10

Minako nuzzled into white down that was softer than any pillow. It yielded like a marshmallow, little feathery tufts tickling her cheeks. She inhaled, slowly. Sweet fresh air scents met her--sunshine, grass, honeysuckle. 

“Parking fee,” a voice rumbled to her through the squishy whiteness. “No snuggling without petting.”

“But your belly was made for snuggling,” she mumbled through the fur. “It needs a face smooshed into it.”

“And my ears are made for rubbing.”

“What’s the point of sleeping with your belly showing if you are going to put a tax on its use?”

“To lure you into my trap. Now you have triggered my predator instinct.”

“Are you going to attack my face?”

“I have to, now. Your face is in my territory.”

“If you scratch me, I’ll call Usagi and she’ll tell Luna what you did.”

“If you don’t rub my ears, I’ll call Usagi first and tell her how you mistreat me. She’ll take my side because I’m cute and fuzzy.”

“You monster,” she complained, snaking her hand around him to rub his ear. 

“Mm, no. Higher.” 

“You are so picky.”

“What was that? You need another bottle of orange nail polish because none of the three you already own matches your sandals?”

“You have no appreciation for fashion.”

“Mmm, but I have appreciation for ear rubs.” He angled his head to the side in the way that only cats can do, jamming his ear further into her hand. A low purr vibrated deep through his tummy. “Now why don’t you tell me what’s wrong.” 

“Why should anything be wrong?”

“You’re trying to hide yourself in my belly, and I’m not nearly big enough for that.”

Minako sighed. She could fool many people--teachers, friends, boyfriends, her parents--but she could not fool her own cat. He always saw right through her. “Things are turning out exactly the way I planned, but it’s not making me happy.”

“This is about a boy, right? Is it the one whose smell was all over you last night, or the one you wanted to notice you?”

“What makes you think they’re not the same person?”

“Are they?”

“Well, no.”

Artemis chuckled, and Minako was reminded of why she felt safe confiding in him. Rei, though she was close as a sister could be, would not want to hear right now that Mina was romantically involved with one Shitennou, let alone two. Usagi, though endlessly understanding, had been a one-man girl since she was fourteen years old, and honestly had no idea how dating could be anything other than falling instantly and madly for your one true love. Ami alternated between bored and flustered on the topic of sex, and Makoto… 

Well, Makoto seemed sad lately, and Mina did not want to burden her.

But Artemis never judged. He never made her feel guilty for wanting what she wanted, for doing things her own way. If she wanted to build up an entire harem of men, he would never have a bad word to say about it. He would just want to make sure she was happy.

“Could it be that you’re overcomplicating things?”

“Probably. But he overcomplicated them first.”

“So you’re letting him set the rules of the game? That doesn’t sound like you. If it’s too complicated, then un-complicate it.”

Minako rolled over so that her pillow rested under her chin, looking at Artemis at eye-level. “Oh, because that is just sooooooooo easy. Please remind me of how simple and un-complicated you and Luna are.”

The black slits of his pupils widened, ringed in bright green. “We’re not overcomplicated! We just--”

“Like sharing Usagi’s bed?”

“Luna doesn’t like sleeping in unfamiliar places and that is not the point!”

Minako grinned. “So what should I do, walk right up to him and tell him to have sex with me on the spot?”

“Well, no. Make him buy you dinner first.”

She laughed. “You and Luna also spend way too much time watching Sex and the City with Usagi.”

“You would be amazed at how much advice you can glean from that show. So, what? What is complicated?”

Minako slowly ran her hand down his back in long, even strokes. “I think… we’re trying to act the same way that we did in the past. But we’re not the people we were. I’ve changed, and he’s probably…” She stared at Artemis’s paw, the little tufts of white fanning out from the pink pads. “If he were the same, he would have done something by now. He had armies at his command and whole governments scrutinizing his actions, and still he found ways to see me. But he’s changed, and I’ve changed, and I think it’s too late to start over and pretend we’re complete strangers, but we can’t keep pretending we’re the same as we were before.”

Artemis leaned over and butted his forehead against her own. “If he is not willing to make the effort for you, then he is not worth it. If he is not trying to see you, then that is his loss.”

She closed her eyes. “It’s my loss too.”

***

When Neil extracted himself, sweaty and naked, from his bed, he noted that the air smelled good. Suspiciously good.

He briefly considered walking out of his room without procuring underwear first. He did not care one bit about Kain’s dignity or his own, and it would annoy the heck out of his flatmate to see Neil’s naked hairy ass sitting down on the clean furniture. But then he remembered that Kain would likely retaliate by stealing his briefs again, and putting on a pair would at least ensure that one set remained in his possession at all times.

He chose the ones that said “HATE” on the rear, in a subtle act of defiance. 

His suspicions only increased as he stepped out of his room. The air did not just smell _good_ , it smelled downright delicious. He put off facing whatever mysterious rituals were taking place down the hall a few moments longer, while he took a piss. Perhaps he could simply ignore whatever was going on in the kitchen. But Neil was never one to hide in his bedroom, and there was no way to exit the apartment without at least passing by the kitchen. Anyway, the damned smells were making him hungry. 

He stepped into the kitchen, hands on the elastic waistband of his red briefs, and looked at the two plates on the counter beside the stove. Two plates. “This smells suspiciously like an apology breakfast.”

Kain was in front of the stove, his shirtsleeves rolled up. “It is breakfast. Nothing more.”

“Yeah, well, you can take your guilt breakfast and dump it in the trash.” Neil crossed the kitchen, determinately ignoring his rumbling stomach, and grabbed a Boss coffee from the fridge. Mina had introduced him to the convenience store beverage, so he now had six bottles of it chilling in the fridge. He knew Kain was too fussy about his coffee being black and hot, so there was no risk of his stash being taken. 

Kain placed something on the first plate, and now Neil realized that what he smelled was steak. Damn it, there were probably eggs too. “Did you know, Japanese beef is said to be some of the best in the world?”

Neil cracked open his coffee. “Yeah, I’m from Canada? I’ve already had the best beef in the world.”

“Care to compare?”

Neil knew better than to be fooled by such a transparent ruse. Kain often utilized his talent at cooking as an emotional weapon. It was his favorite form of apology. It did not help that he was aware of Neil’s weakness for food. And, being his weakness, Neil knew he could not let such a meal pass him by. 

“You Kiwi bastard,” he grumbled, sitting down.

Kain silently set both plates down on the table. Neil was pleased to see that there was still a faint red mark on the side of his jaw where it had connected with Neil’s fist. Should have gone for the eye, he thought, so it would bruise properly. Or, for that matter, his nose.

The book that had been ejected from the window appeared to have been rescued, as it rested on the table beside Kain’s plate. Neil stared at its creased cover while he chewed, to demonstrate his disdain for his dining partner.

Unfortunately, Kain was a very patient man. He sliced up his steak contemplatively, deliberating over each bite as though he were alone in a nice restaurant instead of sitting opposite his naked neanderthal of a roommate who hunched over his food in an effort to shovel it into his mouth faster. Neil figured that if he devoured it all as quickly as he could, he could escape without having to turn it into a confrontation. But after a bit of steak and coffee, his senses fully awoke again, and he remembered that he was mad.

“You could have told me,” he mumbled around a mouthful of beef.

“I suppose.”

Neil could have strangled him then, but his steak might have gotten cold. “But you didn’t.”

Kain, unlike the brunette, remembered to swallow his food before answering. “What would I have told you, exactly? That you were dating somebody under false pretenses? You were aware of that.”

“You could have told me you were involved. I signed up for _her_ false pretenses, not yours!”

“You are aware of the absurdity of what you are saying, aren’t you?”

“It’s no wonder you can’t get laid. It takes the combined efforts of half a village for you to say a girl’s name out loud. Were you gonna ask me to hold your hand when you get into bed with her?”

Kain sipped his coffee. “Why? Are you offering?”

“You couldn’t pay me to climb into bed with your pasty ass.”

“Oh, I don’t know. Name your price.”

Neil had his mouth full of both eggs and steak, but that did not stop him from uttering a multitude of filthy words. “Stop trying to be funny. You’re even worse at being funny than you are at flirting. You know, why don’t you just ask the woman out like a normal fucking person? Wait, I know the answer. Because she’s as nuts as you are.”

That, finally, seemed to penetrate Kain’s defenses. Neil could tell by the way that his fork no longer rested lightly in his hand, but instead was caught in the firm grip of a fist. “Don’t insult her like that.”

“Why? You gonna tell me I’m wrong? Oh wait, you can’t, because you _don’t fucking know her._ ”

Kain, Neil was pleased to see, looked thoroughly annoyed now. “I do know her.”

“You know the memory of somebody who doesn’t exist anymore. And whatever _you_ were back then? Doesn’t exist anymore, either.”

His esteemed leader said nothing. Neil shoved the remainder of the steak into his mouth--a sizeable portion even by his standards--and dropped his fork on the plate. It forced him to take the time to finish chewing, and so he leaned back in his chair, looking less a beast and more a Greek god. Kain had a knack for studying people for uncomfortably long periods, and Neil employed that tactic now, watching those hard silver eyes while he finished his breakfast. 

“There’s three beers in the fridge,” he said.

Kain arched one eyebrow. “Is the contents of the refrigerator my fault as well now?”

“Same number that was there yesterday. Are we going to keep pretending there’s no reason for that?”

Kain did not break eye contact. He was too proud to do that, Neil knew. The fork in his hand spun nervously in his fingers, like he was holding one of his drumsticks instead. 

“Because,” Neil supplied helpfully in absence of an answer, “you don’t drink when you’re depressed. You don’t want to lose control. But nothing is in your control right now, is it? You can set things up as well as you can to help the senshi accept us, but you can’t control all the variables. There are too many different personalities to appeal to. You can do your best to keep your dirty secrets hidden, but you know it’s only a matter of time before they work that out, too. Right now, we’re trapped in this kind of limbo where we don’t know whether we’ll ever be able to truly follow Mamoru to Tokyo when it’s time for him to move back here.

You can’t _control_ anything right now, except this game. Right?” Neil sneered. “And me.”

He stood, snatched up the paperback book, and strode out of the kitchen. “Come up with a better coping mechanism,” he shouted back. “One that doesn’t involve selling me out.” The breakfast had revitalized him, steak and eggs and coffee sitting pleasantly in his stomach. He needed to put on some clothes and get ready to face a woman who had seen him without any on. But first, he needed to toss the book off the balcony again.

***

The freshly-cleared ice opened up before her, white and clean and empty. Immediately after she touched the blade of her skate down, children began to stream onto the rink behind her, but for one moment, Makoto glided alone into that empty void, free of problems or cares.

The others were not due for another half hour, but she wanted to just skate. When she was little, Makoto had spent nearly all of her time on the rink. Her parents put her in classes, even talked about getting her a coach. Her mother made her a pink leotard, with a fluttery skirt and little rosettes stitched around the collar. She used to dream of competing--the songs she would choose, the dresses she would wear, how many jumps she would learn.

She had given it up without a second thought when her parents died. Who had time for lessons when she was trying to get her life under control? One minute she had a family, the next she was going through their things, deciding what she could afford to keep and what had to be sold. Weighing her mother’s porcelain tea set against her father’s camera equipment. By the time she could breathe again, Makoto had long outgrown her skates and her dresses.

Now she had new dreams, but even so. She had missed this. The rink was still empty enough that she could skate freely if she was careful. She made a few experimental spins at the center, feeling the tug of gravity at her limbs. After some practice, the movements became familiar again. The placement of her feet, the arch of her back, the pulling of her arms inward to increase her speed. She switched to an arabesque position, extending one leg behind her in a straight line, and rotated it into a camel spin. There were not many times when Makoto could feel elegant and graceful. But here, gliding on the ice, she was not the far-too-tall tomboy. 

“Mind if I join you?” 

Makoto skidded to a halt. They stood in the center of the rink, most of the other patrons moving in a steady stream around them. She was surprised to see Minako here early, and equally surprised to see her clad in long jeans and a plain orange sweater. After all, there were going to be boys here later. “You’re here early.”

Minako smiled, brushing some of her hair back over her shoulder. She had never bothered to tie her hair back for anything athletic, even when she was on the volleyball team. If she could fight monsters with her hair loose, she could do anything else. “I wanted to get a few laps in before Usagi shows up. You know that when she’s here, we’ll be spending all our time keeping her on her feet.”

Makoto winced. “We’re all going to have bruises tomorrow, aren’t we?” She still remembered the black-and-blue one she got on her hip last time she’d skated with Usagi.

“That’s half the fun, darling.” The two of them moved back into the stream of people skating in a big oval around the perimeter. Minako did not share friend’s skill, but her natural athleticism and lack of fear of getting hurt made her a reasonably good skater. She automatically set a pace that was faster than most of the crowd, darting easily around small children and couples. When Minako wanted to move fast, she could--but Makoto had no idea whether she knew how to stop. Makoto stayed easily beside her, and together they lapped the same couple three times. It felt easy and natural to move alongside her like this, to have another person urging her on. It was no different from fighting alongside her as a senshi, following Minako’s lead and matching her movements. After a few rounds, she felt energized. 

“That’s the smile I’ve been missing!” Minako allowed herself to glide to a slower pace (as Makoto suspected, she had no idea what to do with her toe pick), and Makoto followed suit. “You haven’t looked happy lately.”

It annoyed her that Minako had noticed. “It’s that obvious, huh?”

“Only to me.” That made her feel a little better about it. Usagi would trip over her own feet to make somebody feel better when they were sad, but she could be completely oblivious sometimes. Minako was usually the first to notice when somebody was acting “off.” “I thought at first that you were just upset by the party. You really had your heart set on it, and then it sort of… blew up in all our faces.”

Blew up in _my_ face, Makoto mentally corrected her. Very literally. 

“I just wanted us to welcome them into the group. Make a clean start. I know what it’s like, being the outsider. Nobody trusting you.”

Minako linked arms with her. “Then let’s do that.”

Everyone else seemed to arrive all at once. Mamoru and Usagi, Ami, Neil, and Jaden. Makoto thought at first that nobody else had come, but she spotted Kain on the benches, beside Sasha. Kain was probably staying off his knee, thought Makoto, but she was confused about why Sasha was staying away.

“He hates to be cold,” Jaden explained, leaning against the wood boards while they waited for Mamoru to help a wobbly Usagi to the rink. “And once he fell, panicked, and melted a puddle in the ice.”

Makoto did not join in the laughter, still feeling her own recent outburst a little too keenly. Ami, too, seemed more interested than amused. “He melted it instantly?”

Neil rocked casually back and forth on his skates, as at ease on them as he would be in sneakers. “Sasha is a human furnace with an itchy trigger finger. He would have melted the whole damn rink to stop us from laughing at the big wet mark on his ass if Kain hadn’t been there.”

“Interesting,” Ami mused, “I don’t think anything like that has happened to Rei, and she also uses fire.”

“Yeah but,” Minako said, “she’s Rei.”

Mamoru walked Usagi to the rink, escorting her on his arm like the princess she was. The moment she got to the ice, she released her grip on his arm and rocketed forward like an eager toddler. “Mako-chaaaaaaaan we haven’t skated in foreveeeeek!” The blond careened headlong in their direction, arms cartwheeling madly. Makoto braced herself for impact, but before Usagi could collide with anyone or find herself face-first on the ice, Neil grabbed her and swept her around into a hug. “Cinderella! You made it!”

Usagi giggled, completely unconcerned about her near-collision. “It’s Snow White today.”

“Excellent! Get some forest creatures to come keep you from falling over.”

“I am not going to fall over, I am going to gracefully--yeeeeeek!” Traversing the short meter back to their clustered group nearly brought both of them down, but Neil managed to keep the two of them upright.

“Mamoru’s not coming?” Jaden asked, watching his liege move to sit beside Kain. 

“Mamochan doesn’t skate,” Usagi explained in a wobbly voice, as she lurched next to Neil. 

“What?” Neil feigned surprise. “With such a talented skating partner?”

“I don’t think he’s ever skated,” Ami supplied helpfully. It was true, Makoto mused--skating was one of those things you learned in childhood. She had been skating almost as long as she’d been walking. Usagi used to try to convince Mamoru to come to their skating sessions, but he’d always turned her down. He probably only came tonight for the same reason Kain did--because he was trying to encourage these inter-team activities. 

“Never?” The teasing tone had left Neil’s voice, and he shot a glance at Jaden, who immediately took out his phone. 

“What’s his shoe size, like, ten?” Jaden was rapidly typing out a text.

“Sasha will know. He always knows, for some creepy reason.”

Makoto felt like she had just missed something. “What’s going on?”

“Mamoru’s not allowed to miss out on things he’s never done before.”

“Not allowed?”

“Strongly encouraged not to,” Neil clarified diplomatically. He was somehow managing to stay solidly in one place even though Hurricane Usagi was clinging to his arm, wobbling and swaying even while not in motion. “Let’s just say that when the orphan who spends his every waking moment studying says he can’t play video games with you because he’s never played video games, you make him play the goddamn game.”

Jaden stopped texting, and Kain excused himself from the benches. 

“But shouldn’t he decide what he wants to do?”

“Sure. When he’s done it once. Then he can make an informed decision.”

“You know, I always wondered,” Minako said suddenly, “which was faster. Figure skates or hockey skates?”

“Hockey,” Neil answered immediately. “They’re made to let you build up speed quickly.”

“Really? But don’t you also need speed to do jumps, Makoto?” Minako looked up at her, almost Usagi-like in her wide-eyed confusion. 

“Of course,” she answered hesitantly, wondering where the blonde was going with this.

“They’re still made for precision more than speed,” Neil continued. “The toe pick would get in your way.”

“Well, if you don’t know what to do with it,” Makoto found herself snapping back. The surprise on his face should have, perhaps, shamed her into conceding, but a competitive part of her stirred inside. “It’s not the tools that matter, it’s the skater.”

“Why don’t you demonstrate for us?” Minako chirped, and Makoto realized too late that she recognized that devious glimmer in her eye. “The first one to do two laps around the rink wins.”

“But…” Makoto looked across the long rink, now filling with more and more people. “There are kids out there.”

“Then we’d better not run into any,” Neil laughed.

“Minus three seconds if you run over anyone. Minus six if it’s a small child.” Jaden, apparently, was jumping on board with this idea.

“Oh oh!” Usagi piped in excitedly, “And the loser has to take the winner to dinner!”

“Usagi!” Makoto hissed, but her objection was drowned out by Neil’s laughter.

“Coffee,” he said, a grin on his face. “Let’s not rush into things. Coffee would be an acceptable prize.” His eyes, Makoto noticed, could be described as coffee-colored. She searched them to see if he was mocking her, if this was some kind of set-up to a joke in which she was the punchline, but could see no malice there. 

“Fine,” she said after a moment, “but winner also chooses the venue for this cup of coffee. Even if the walls are pink and covered in hearts.”

“Excellent. I love pink hearts.” 

It was a parody of a real race. They designated an ad board for a health beverage as their start and finish line, and the pair lined up side-by-side behind it, scrupulously keeping their skates from crossing even an inch over the line. It took a moment for Minako to find an appropriate noise in her phone’s alarm function to act as a “go” signal, during which the rest of the rink patrons continued to drift contentedly past the two athletes poised at the ready. Neil had removed his jacket, and Makoto tried not to notice how his bare arm brushed warm against hers.

When Minako’s alarm sounded--a sharp air horn blast--Makoto sprung forward. Neil was ahead of her almost immediately, tearing across the ice with unmatched ferocity. He was playing to win. But so was she. 

For the first lap, she trailed him. She could not match his speed, just as he said, but he could not shake her, either. 

A cluster of children rose up to meet Neil, and he swerved sharply away, slamming against the boards to avoid a collision. Makoto wove--around Neil, then around two children, swift as lightning. In an empty rink, or one occupied by hazards that could endure being knocked out of the way, he would have long left her behind. On this one, full of children and slow couples and the Usagis of the world wobbling their way along, she skipped lightly ahead of him. For a moment, Makoto felt as free as she had when the rink was empty, except now her heart pounded in her throat and a smile tugged at her lips. 

She crossed the designated finish line, and backtracked to the cheering cluster of friends by pulling herself into a tight loop. Neil skidded to a stop so sharply that he sprayed a wave of snow over the entire group. “I am defeated!” He roared dramatically, drawing stares as he sank to his knees on the ice. 

“Never had a chance,” Jaden sighed, shaking his head.

“Nobody can beat Mako-chan!” Usagi proclaimed proudly.

Makoto felt a laugh bubbling up her throat, even as she shook snow out of her hair. “I hope you were telling the truth about liking pink hearts.”

***

The delightful chaos turned to chaos of a different kind when Mamoru entered the rink, coaxed onto the ice by Jaden and Neil in front and Kain behind. Usagi was enough of a disaster on skates; Minako could hardly believe that Mamoru would actually be _worse_. The moment his blades touched the ice, he nearly went flying right onto his face (to both the delight and horror of everyone nearby). Where once the group had one unstable participant to babysit, now they had two. Makoto and Neil, now fast friends still basking in the glow of friendly competition, were happy to share the burden, and much screaming and laughter could be heard as both fought to keep the entire party upright.

Minako watched with approval as Mamoru, Usagi, Makoto, Neil, Jaden, and Ami all collapsed into a giggling heap at once, much to the exasperation of every skater nearby. Diffusing the tension between Makoto and Neil had been a delicate enough scheme. Seeing the rest of them follow suit… that went beyond her own planning. She certainly had not expected Mamoru to provide the welcome distraction that everybody rallied around. 

Indeed, the entire situation felt like somebody else’s machinations had been at play. Minako skated over to the lonely pair remaining in the front row of the stands. Sasha had his head bowed, deep in his sketchbook. As she moved closer to them, she saw no trace of a smile on Kain’s mouth as he watched the noisy group, but something like one creased the corner of his eye. 

She crashed gracelessly against the boards in front of him, toe picks be damned, and stood with her orange gloved hands on the railing. “Usagi’s been trying to get him to come skating for years. How did you convince him?”

Her sudden appearance seemed to surprise him less than the the fact that she was speaking directly to him, and Minako allowed herself a little pride at still managing to throw him off. He arched one grey eyebrow up at her. “I handed him a pair of skates and told him to put them on.”

Despite herself, Minako laughed. “I suppose that would not have worked for just anyone.”

“No, I suppose not.”

She leaned forward, resting her elbows on the railing. Sasha did not even glance up from the sketches of skating figures that were filling his page, but she had no doubt that he was listening. “And what does it take to get you out here?”

He watched her in that endlessly calm way of his. “Aren’t there enough on the ice as it is?”

“Not by my count.”

“Well, I’ll have to see about getting a better knee, first.”

She shrugged, turning away. “Take your time, then.” Across the rink, the group had finally coordinated themselves well enough to remain mobile, and the six of them chugged along, arm-in-arm, at a speed easily surpassed by small children.

Minako spun back around. “Actually, don’t. Hurry up. It gets boring, waiting on the sidelines. Some might start to think that’s all you ever plan to do.”

She left him there and, rolling up the sleeves of her orange sweater, hurried to rejoin the group. They would never get anywhere without her help.


	11. Chapter 11

_“Your highness, unrest is growing in the Earth kingdoms. The rebels are gathering forces.”_

_Venus sat a little more erect on her pile of cushions, staring down at her spy in confusion. The Earth rebellion had always been little more than a noisy fringe group--a cabal of radicals that both Kunzite and her own spy network claimed held little influence. “Why? What has changed?”_

_“My princess, they are saying that alien power is attempting to seize control of the throne. They believe that the Crown Prince has been bewitched. That he is being controlled by a foreign goddess.”_

_Fear coiled in Venus’ chest. No. Not Serenity. If they learned of Serenity and Endymion’s secret trysts, the princess would never be safe on Earth. “What do they know? How did they learn of her?”_

_Adonis wavered in confusion. “Begging your pardon, your highness. The goddess they speak of is **you**.”_

_Venus stared down at the kneeling soldier for a full heartbeat. “Me? Controlling Endymion?”_

_“His highness’s shift in politics appeared to coincide with your diplomatic visits to Earth. The connection may be incidental, but it is gaining traction among anti-Silver Millennium forces. They are saying that… that you did not send forces to assist in the fight against the demon infestation at all. That you planted your armies in order to instigate a coup.”_

_Venus could have laughed, then. The misguided fools! Looking directly at two real affairs and inventing a false one instead. All because of what? Because they thought she, divine daughter of the Pearl of the Sol System, wanted to take ownership of their cold, hostile piece of rock? She stood from her cushions. “Summon my handmaiden. We must be ready to depart by morning.”_

_Adonis looked alarmed. “To Earth? Your highness, in this political climate…”_

_“I must meet with the Prince over these grave concerns. Do not look so worried, my little soldier. They will not dare harm me.” On the table beside her, she found the little golden comb, and slid it into her hair. “If the rebels must put a face to their enemy, then let that face be mine.”_

***

“This thing doesn’t work right! It’s way too big!” Usagi stood in the middle of the room with her yukata hanging half-open and the hem trailing on the floor. She seemed not to care that all she wore underneath was a thin lacy camisole and slip-skirt in a room also occupied by Minako, Ami, Makoto, Mamoru, and two cats. 

Minako dropped the thick coil of hair that she had been attempting to pin up into some kind of elaborate up-do. Had she always had this much hair? Maybe she should consider chopping it all off. “Usagi, honey, you’re wearing a yukata, not your boyfriend’s bathrobe.” The boyfriend in question looked uncomfortably around, as though he actually imagined that Usagi did not share every single stimulating detail of their shared sex life with her friends. She made a mental note to exploit that discomfort for her own amusement later.

“I know, I just can’t ever get it to tuck properly.” She pouted down at the cotton yukata, which seemed a surprisingly elegant choice despite how it draped pathetically down to the floor. Where Usagi normally gravitated towards bright colors, the yukata was black and speckled with stars. The yellow crescent moons on it must have been what sold her on this particular design. 

Rei would really be the go-to authority on this matter, but she was out in the front of the shrine, selling charms and tanzaku papers for people to write their wishes on. The Tanabata Festival always brought in crowds of people, old and young, hoping their single wish for the year might be granted. The fact that Usagi had somehow convinced Rei to not only join them on an outing with the Shitennou, but to do it at a time when the shrine required so much of her attention, was nothing short of shocking. Minako reminded herself not to ruin that small miracle by harassing her friend too much. 

“I’m sure that, between the two of us, we can get it fixed.” Ami stood from a cushion to help Minako. Her yukata reminded Minako of a tranquil pool, with blue rings of ripples disturbing the pale cream surface. Tiny blue fish danced through the ripples as Ami took hold of one side of Usagi’s yukata, and Minako took the other. 

Minako’s own yukata looked like somebody had hastily painted daisies all over it in bright orange and navy blue. Hardly a traditional choice, and to drive the point home she had a pair of wedge heels waiting by the front door, rather than the customary _geta_ sandals. Would Rei disapprove? She had a fondness of tradition, but she also loved shoes almost as much as Minako did, so perhaps her little twist would receive a pass.

Through careful folding and maneuvering, she and Ami got Usagi properly tucked away in her yukata. “It feels like forever since we’ve done anything like this,” Makoto said. Her yukata was of bright florals, an ostentatious choice for her, and Minako noticed the way that she fussed and smoothed the front creases, as if fearing that the robe might fail to contain her curves. Still, she seemed in good spirits as she and Mamoru sat together on Rei’s floor, leaning on the short table.

As she coordinated with Ami, Minako ran down her mental checklist. Tonight’s plans were complicated and risky in a way that only Usagi’s ideas could be. Was it enough that she and the Inners had slowly been working through the tension to build an alliance with the Shitennou? Bad enough that Rei was being dragged along despite her misgivings? Of course not. No, Usagi, in her eternal quest to make everybody love everybody else, had invited the Outers along. 

Minako returned to Rei’s vanity mirror, swiped yet another bobby pin from Rei’s stash, and tried once again to pin her hair up. The Outers were not unreasonable, but they were a variable that Minako had less control over than she would have liked. And she did not know what to expect from them on this front. They had been notified of who and what the Shitennou were--not before their arrival in Japan, but months earlier, when Mamoru had first informed them of their return. So they were fully aware of the fact that the four men they would be meeting tonight would be former adversaries. 

But… so was Hotaru, wasn’t she? The youngest sailor soldier would be sixteen in January, and every year the teen looked less like the fragile host for an alien demon that she had been as a child. Most days, Minako could forget the fact that they had ever seen the girl as a threat. Most days. Did Setsuna, Haruka, or Michiru ever think about what Saturn had once been to them? Or did they look at Hotaru and see only the girl they had raised together?

The Outers, for all their dedication to duty, probably knew better than Minako about how it felt to love a former enemy. But that gave her no better idea of what they would do about the Shitennou. They had no reason to care for them, but they also had no reason to fear them, having never met them as either friend or foe.

Usagi was making it abundantly clear that she wanted everyone -- sailor soldier and Shitennou, Inner or Outer -- to become friends. Well, “friends” might be wishful thinking where some parties were concerned, but if the different groups could at least settle for a tolerance of each other, Minako would consider that a win for her princess. 

Perhaps it was a non-issue. Perhaps it would be fine. But Minako had no way of knowing which way the wind would blow tonight, and that lack of knowledge irritated her. So she concentrated on taming her hair instead, and by the time Rei entered her bedroom, she had finally managed to twist her blonde locks into an updo with a cluster of orange flowers. 

Rei stood by the sliding door of her bedroom wearing the red hakama and white haori of her miko attire. Were she feeling festive, Minako knew she could be convinced to wear the yukata in her closet that was covered in big white lilies. But “festive” was clearly the opposite of Rei’s mood, as her expression froze into the look of cold indifference that she normally reserved for unpleasant customers and her father. She would do this because Usagi asked her, but that did not mean she had to like it. “Everybody ready? Let’s get this over with.”

***

It was rare that Kain felt under-dressed for any occasion. Normally, one of his friends would be more than happy to point out that his polished leather shoes and neatly-pressed shirts were enough to make him look more like he was on his way to a business meeting than any event that involved fun. The shirt he had chosen tonight was a pale shade of grey, to avoid overheating in the evening sun, but he nevertheless had it buttoned formally right up to the collar. 

The girls in their yukata were like walking gardens, an array of color dancing over cotton canvases. Even Mamoru looked regal in his own, more understated robe of faded navy blue. Though Usagi seemed determined to mitigate the effect by repeatedly tripping over her own sandals, Kain felt himself both underdressed and out of place--a foreigner in every sense. 

That was mystery that would likely never be solved: why every soldier of the Silver Millennium had been given the gift of rebirth within such close proximity to each other. Out of all the world, they had been born on the same small island, in the same city, their lives pulling at one another’s long before magic conspired to awaken them. Yet he and his brothers had been scattered across the globe, brought together only by keen determination and a multitude of student visas. 

Meeting the four Outer Soldiers went more smoothly than Kain had anticipated. Mamoru had described them as more hardened and aloof than the others, and so what Kain had expected to see were cold and hostile warriors. Instead, when Usagi started excitedly shouting to the group waiting for them at the foot of the Tokyo Tower, the greeting she received in return was bright and cordial, if understated. Hotaru, the youngest of this generation’s sailor senshi, had joined the others in wearing a seasonal yukata. Hers was pale violet with sprigs of white flowers. Though the other three had opted for modern clothing styles, Haruka’s suit alone likely cost as much as Kain’s last student loan had.

The Outers must have surely been briefed about who and what the Shitennou were. Though Kain was uncertain of how much the two senshi teams interacted, he highly doubted that Minako or Rei would have hesitated to pass along all relevant information about a former enemy. And yet, their reaction to the four men could only be described as “polite boredom.”

Maybe, Kain thought, he really was overthinking things. Maybe Neil was right. He was letting his anxieties turn him paranoid, making him anticipate trouble where there was none. The three groups easily merged into one and broke off into smaller clusters again as they made their way into the festival crowds. Neil joined Makoto and Ami. Jaden and Sasha chatted easily with Haruka and Michiru. Even Rei gravitated towards Setsuna, and seemed to warm up near her. All of them buoyed by the festivities.

But Kain could only feel confined by the crowds. There were too many bright colors, too many competing voices. Though the Tokyo natives, accustomed to moving around each other, seemed to flow past him like water, still he felt confined by the press of their sheer numbers. He towered over most of them, a pale and awkward foreigner. 

Usagi clung to Mamoru’s arm ahead of him, and though the traditional yukata looked nothing at all like the garments they once wore in a previous life, the two of them looked more like royalty now than they did in their regular clothes. Whatever their lives were in the past, however great the divide between their worlds may have been, now they inhabited this culture together. Endymion had joined Serenity’s world, but he had left Kain and his Shitennou behind.

***

Minako had so much to do.

First, she had to get Rei out of her sulk, without pushing her close to any of the Shitennou and making her more agitated. Setsuna was staying coolly on the sidelines, as she often did, so that seemed like the safest choice. She informed Rei of the new dress designs that Setsuna was working on, and sent the pair on their way.

Next, she needed to see that some of the Outers somehow conversed with some of the Shitennou. That was the purpose of inviting them, after all. Jaden had already met them in passing, when he went to see Mamoru’s motorcycle, so it would be easy enough to get him and Haruka talking. The fact that Jaden was both in awe of Haruka’s toys and a musician himself got him in with both halves of the couple pretty smoothly. 

She had to check in with Makoto, of course. Was she still feeling down? Were she and Neil as compatible as Minako had suspected? When she found them deep into a conversation about the flavor notes of a sweet sesame seed dumpling, she knew that she need not have bothered. 

Keeping an eye on Usagi and Mamoru was not an immediate priority, but by default Minako always had Usagi in her peripherals. That was an easy enough task, since Usagi could be heard over any crowd, and her twin buns were easy to spot. 

And then by the time she had finished making the rounds, she did it all again. Steer Rei and Setsuna towards a booth selling luxurious silk scarves. Point out a street artist for Michiru and Sasha to critique. Remind Makoto that there was a vendor selling meat skewers that Neil simply must try. By the time she had done all this, the group, in clusters of twos and threes, had made their way past the street vendors to the base of the Tokyo Tower. It had been years since Minako had bothered to come here at night, and even she paused in her social managing to gaze up at the criss-crossing bars that were lit up in a bright orange. 

Neil’s voice broke through her thoughts. “So what is this festival for, exactly?” 

“Tanabata is about stars. And love!” Usagi said. 

“It’s from a fairy tale,” Makoto explained. “About Orihime and Hikoboshi…”

“Vega and Altair,” Ami clarified for the English speakers, ever eager to get the details right.

“They’re two lovers who are separated by the Milky Way. But one night a year, if it doesn’t rain, they can meet again.”

“So you make wishes and wear yukata on the night that they can meet again?”

“And also,” Usagi declared triumphantly, “because this is the one night a year that the Tokyo Tower gives free admission if you’re wearing one!” She waved her arms around so that her sleeves waved like flags. 

“And here I left my yukata at home!” Neil complained. 

“Well you should come see it anyway! The view from up top is so pretty! They even have this glass floor you can stand on and see all the way down to the ground.”

Makoto’s hand went to her obi--or perhaps her stomach underneath it. “I… remember that glass floor. I think I’ll give this one a pass.”

Neil, Minako was pleased to see, picked up on the uncertainty in her voice. “Not a fan of heights?”

“Not the biggest fan, no.” She smiled at him reassuringly. “You should still see the view, though. Get a picture of the city lights for me.”

Usagi looked clearly distressed. “But… I thought we could all go together…” 

It was Rei who jumped to Makoto’s rescue. “We _are_ together, Usagi. Just not all at the same time. Everyone who wants to go up the tower should go, and the rest of us will be waiting when you get back.”

Makoto gave her a grateful smile as the group once again reshuffled and split up. With Usagi and most of the guys moving toward the tower, Minako knew she should join them. If she was going to continue with this personal quest of making everybody get along like Usagi wanted, then she should be where they were.

But one person drifted away from both parties, and all of Minako’s plans flew out the window. She waved goodbye to Usagi and her entourage and followed Kain across the narrow street to a cluster of trees that sheltered them, slightly, from the noise of the crowds. She had studiously kept her attention on everyone but him all night, wanting to focus on the task at hand instead. But now, all of her personal missions seemed far less important. 

The trees also blocked some of the vibrant orange light that radiated off the Tokyo Tower, and Kain seemed to draw their shadows around him like a blanket. Even so, his pale hair remained like a sliver of starlight, and some small part of her wanted to laugh about that. _No matter how dark it got, I could always see you…_

Minako was keenly aware of the fact that the others were out of reach, now. She had nobody to put on a display for. Nobody except him. And without an audience, what was she supposed to say?

“I thought you would want to stay with the others. Not interested in the view?”

He looked down at her, almost wearily. “I have seen it.”

Minako let out a slow breath. How could she forget that night on Tokyo Tower? The night that Usagi became Princess Serenity? She had not forgotten, of course, but she did not think of the man they had fought as the same one she stood before now. “Of course you have.”

The silence was filled by the rush of cars, the chatter of pedestrians. She had grown up in the Minato area of Tokyo, and was used to the incessant city noise. Not like quiet Azabu-Juuban, with its cobbled pedestrian streets. 

“It’s good for them, though. To see this place as normal humans. To make new memories here. So… thank you. For what you’ve done to make them feel welcome.”

Minako did not know which part to be stricken by: his gratitude, or the awkward way in which he expressed it. Would the Kunzite she knew have ever thanked her for such a small thing? Would he have stuttered when he said it?

She stared up at the Tokyo Tower, as if it were possible to pick out their friends up on the viewing platform. “It’s what Usagi wants. Everybody getting along.”

“Yes. Your princess is kind.” A lifetime ago, such a statement would have been dripping with sarcasm. Kunzite had always been rather suspicious of the Moon’s Royal Family--”paranoid” is how Venus would have described it.

Now? Now his voice carried an unexpected tenderness. 

“I didn’t tell you,” he continued, “how nice you look.”

She looked down at her bright yukata, and the wedge sandals peeking out from under the hem. She laughed. “You think it’s really me?”

“It suits you.” He did not return her laugh, and she saw that one thing had not changed: he was still endlessly serious. 

Minako smiled up at the tower. “I’m glad all of you came. I don’t think you’re the only ones who needed to make new memories.”

“All of us?”

“Well,” she looked up at him, at those pale grey eyes. “Some more than others, maybe.”

He shifted, looking like he wanted to say something, and she waited, letting the city sounds fill the space between them. “I…”

That was when the screaming started, and Minako cursed her luck.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for your patience with me. I'm sorry for my slow updates! If you are interested in seeing the real yukata that inspired the ones described here, [take a look!](http://luna-whiskers.tumblr.com/post/130562656207/for-those-of-you-who-have-been-waiting-for-the)


	12. Chapter 12

_The room was a sea of masks, and hers the most dazzling of them. Delicate filigree of real gold swirled dramatically over her face. It was set with rubies as violently red as her lipstick, and it dripped with pearls that dangled along her cheeks like tears. It had taken the combined efforts of three handmaidens to construct the many twists and curls of her hair atop her head, and to affix the mask firmly to her face. Between the mask and the many pins in her hair, there was enough metal on Venus's head to call down a storm upon it, which was precisely its intended purpose._

_She found the Crown Prince easily enough. The young earthling often favored the color black, even at joyful occasions, while the many courtiers fluttering around him wore bright colors that were more appropriate to the season. Tonight his coat was edged in embroidered leaves, rich green on black velvet, but his mask was a plain stark white to match the white rose in his lapel._

_Laughter crowded around him, but now as she slithered through the gathering, it fell to an awkward silence. She took advantage of that, laying her hand upon his arm to get his attention. He turned to her in some surprise, his eyes a startling blue behind the white. "May I have this dance?"_

_He looked confused. That was to be expected. She had hardly given the young prince so much as a formal greeting since they had met, even on those warm summer nights when she came to collect her Princess from his bed. But her hand was firm on his arm, and it would be impolite to refuse. "As you wish. My lady." Titles were dispensed with at the masque, the better to maintain the illusion of anonymity. In the court of the First Kingdom, of course, the illusion was only a game, for everyone knew very well who most of the others were. It was a delicate art, pretending to hide one's face while guaranteeing that every important person would still recognize you._

_As Venus took Prince Endymion's hand, she knew that few would fail to recognize her now. If they did not know her by sight, they would know her by the persona she wore tonight. The mask of gold, instead of paint and paper. The gown, just a little bit alien, with its golden chainmail accents lying heavy upon her shoulders and light silks fluttering about her ankles instead of thick brocade. The flirtatious turn of her head._ I am Aphrodite _, she said._ Look upon me _._

_The Golden Kingdom court was all too happy to obey. The only one in the room whose gaze did not burn upon her skin was the Earthling Prince, staring out at the crowd past her shoulder as he positioned himself across from her. His hand met her waist with all the clinical abruptness of an overworked healer. No doubt he had to do this with many visiting duchesses and princesses, and the act had become automatic, now. A political necessity drilled into him from a young age. He knew the part he had to play, just as she did._

_A shadow loomed behind Endymion, pale and foreboding. A hand rested on the jeweled epaulette of his jacket. The hand was gentle, but the voice was not. "I am cutting in." It was not a question._

_The prince gratefully melted away into the crowd, while Venus slid as easily into the hands of her new partner as if this was not the first time they had danced together. "You would dare dance with me in public? Are we growing bold now?"_

_"Clearly _you_ are." His mask was painted to look like it was of wrought iron, and it gave him a severe look. His eyes burned with an anger she had never before seen in them. The hands at her wrist and waist were steady, controlled, and cold as though he had been dipping them in the iced wine. "You are playing with fire."_

_His brushed silk jacket was a dove grey, nearly silver in the candlelight. His movements were mechanical, leading her as precisely and automatically as the drills he made his soldiers do in the mornings. Her own steps were light and quick, not always in step with the other couples around them, but close enough to keep up. "I do not play. I never play. You should know this by now."_

_He shook his head, pulling her into a dizzying spin. "No. You are always playing. Even at war, you are playing. But not now. This game ends here. You will not involve my prince in your political games."_

_She laughed, high and trilling. Let the whole court hear it, she thought. Let them wonder what she could have to laugh about. "A game, you call it? You have rebels in your own ranks, calling for your prince's head. And for the head of his alien consort. I wonder where they got that idea from?"_

_He scowled behind the mask. "I do not know. We will subdue the rebels, and their rumors."_

_Her smile remained frozen in place. "And if you do not? Let me make myself clear: Serenity will never be involved in your civil war."_

_"We would never allow--"_

_"No, you wouldn't. You would never harm her. But if you cannot protect your own prince, I cannot very well expect you to protect my princess." The hand that held hers turned cold as an icicle, but she refused to let it go even as her own fingers turned numb. "You know my duties and what they oblige me to do. I will keep her from danger even if it means putting myself in her place."_

_His eyes lingered on hers. "You know my duties, as well. I must protect him. Even from you, if need be."_

_"And how are you protecting him from me? By keeping me from treading on his royal feet?"_

_"By telling you that you must leave. Do not appear near him again. Do not encourage these rumors. Doing so endangers us all, but him especially."_

_Venus swallowed a dry lump in her throat, but she refused to let her chin lower even a little bit. "I see. And shall I take with me the army that I have so graciously placed in your trust?"_

_He broke eye contact first, finding something or other in the crowd to hold his attention instead. "They are your soldiers. Do with them as you will."_

_"Keep them, then. As my gift to you. May you win your civil war." The dance ended, and her curtsey to him was as proper as the bow he returned, but she refused to look his way again before she turned to leave._

***

“Whose idea was it to make yukata so hard to run in?!” Makoto growled, trying to hike the hem of her robe high enough that it would stop trapping her ankles. The first thing she’d done upon hearing the screams was slip off her geta sandals so she could run barefoot without fear of tripping. She ran with the geta in one hand and as much yukata as she could gather into her fist in the other. Ami and Hotaru kept their sandals on, but without her normally longer strides, Makoto could not manage to get much further ahead than either.

“You’re not supposed to run in them!” Minako shouted back, equally hindered by her own yukata, but managing just fine in her wedge heels. At least all the strappy bits kept them firmly attached to her feet. “You’re supposed to shuffle daintily!”

“Fuck dainty! I’m beginning to hope it _is_ a youma, just so I can get out of this thing.” 

“Well,” Rei had arrived ahead of the group, having been unencumbered by her loose-fitting hakama pants. She glanced back at the four as they reached her, a henshin wand already in hand. “It looks like you’ve got your wish.”

Kain had trailed behind them. Though his knee throbbed in protest, he could have pushed it further if he chose. His every muscle tensed, itching to be at the forefront, but he sternly reminded himself where he was, who he was with. Five sailor senshi was plenty of muscle to deal with any youma. This was their city. Let them take the lead. 

Rei, it seemed, was not kidding. A writhing mass of sickly green vines, bigger than a truck and steadily spreading, was snaking its way around the tower’s base. 

“You ready for this, kid?” Makoto gave Hotaru’s arm a friendly punch. 

Though she was smaller than even Ami, the pale girl grinned back. “Have you _seen_ me training with Haruka-papa?”

Suddenly everyone was engulfed in light, and Kain turned away to give them privacy as they transformed. But Minako still stood right beside him, and as she raised her golden pen, she caught his eye, a playful smile on her lips. 

Minako stretched long and luxuriously into her transformation, her skin glowing like molten gold. “Ahh, that’s better,” she sighed, and Kain did his very best not to watch the gossamer ribbons settle snugly around her naked frame before they turned into a white bodysuit. The rest of the costume followed, flashing so quickly into place that he might have missed the whole thing had he blinked. She gave him a wink, but there was a sharp determination in her blue eyes, and the moment quickly passed as she turned to Mercury. “Can you get a scan on it?”

Sailor Mercury squinted through her blue goggles at the wriggling nest of vines. “It’s strange. I can’t tell if it’s one creature or many. Either way, the bulk of its power is concentrated where the vines are the thickest.”

“Are there any more civilians around?”

Mercury shook her head. “They’re either inside the tower, or they’ve scattered.”

“Good. That makes this easy.” Sailor Jupiter raced forward, lightning gathering in her palm. Kain had already seen first-hand what sort of damage that lightning could do, but that was under circumstances where she was _trying_ to be restrained. Unleashed, Jupiter was a powerhouse. The very sky seemed to rumble in response to her gathering power, and Kain could taste ozone on the tip of his tongue. 

The lightning crashed from her palm into the heart of the tangled vines. The resulting explosion was blinding. 

“Oh,” Mercury breathed, staring with deep fascination into her tiny computer. “I suppose that answers my question, then.”

The vines had been thrown apart, and now the entire parking lot surrounding the Tokyo Tower was littered with the wormlike creatures, lethargically slithering over cars and across the asphalt. Many of them dragged burned portions, slightly hindered but apparently unconcerned. 

“Oh, ew!” Venus squealed, picking up one foot to avoid letting a vine touch it. 

“Stop being so squeamish!” Jupiter laughed. “It’s only a little vine.”

“It’s hellspawn and it wriggles like a _worm_ , Jupiter!”

“Aw, I think it’s kind of cute, in an evil way.” Jupiter reached out to pick up the one that lay by Venus’s feet. The moment her hand was near, it reared up like an angry viper and attempted to loop around her arm. She snatched her hand back with a yelp. “Okay, no, these things need to die.”

Venus concurred. “Fire, Mars. We need a lot of fire. Fan out and get them before they can disperse!” 

The five senshi spread out and began to carpet the parking lot with power. Jupiter sent out smaller shocks of lightning than her initial attack, electricity crackling along the length of the vines. Saturn was poetry and death with her glaive, a faint purple aura that danced just behind her the only sign that there was power behind her every sweep with the oversized weapon. Venus was pinpoint precision, golden streaks of light slicing like lasers through the vines. Mars was fire and wrath, sending out tendrils of flame that reduced the vines instantly to ash. 

Mercury held back, watching through the blue goggles that flickered with readings that only she could see. Kain thought that perhaps she did not plan to engage at all--until a wall of ice rose like a wave to one side of the parking lot, stopping some of the vines before they could flee. Then he understood: she was containing the creatures while the others concentrated on killing them. 

He did not want to be useless. That was not something Kain ever allowed himself to be. But the powers that he had access to were… _limited_ was not the correct term. He had power, perhaps more power even than Sasha, whose fire bordered on uncontrollable. But his powers were very _specific_. And some of them could be… problematic, if seen by the senshi now.

So he hovered close to Mercury, watching without the aid of her additional technology. She was too distracted watching the far edge of the battlefield to notice some vines creeping up the car beside her. He dropped the shield between her and the vines just as they tried to strike at her face. 

“Oh!” Mercury turned just in time to see the vines strike the face of the shield. He could create a full dome over a person if he wished, but this one only curved halfway around her. It was black and transparent, like a tinted windshield, and the vines cringed away from it as though burned by its touch. 

She gave Kain a surprised smile. “Thanks!” 

He quickly dispersed the shield, but no doubt even the soldier of ice would have felt the chill radiating from it in the few seconds it surrounded her. “Glad to help.”

A metallic groan from above froze any further conversation in its place. The two of them looked up with mounting horror and saw that, while they had been occupied with the vines on the ground, none of them had thought to watch out for vines creeping their way up the tower. A number had wrapped around one of the Tokyo Tower’s supports, and were slowly twisting the metal beams apart. 

Somewhere up in the viewing platform, held up by those supports, there would be a number of innocent civilians. There would be senshi, and there would be his friends, and there would be Mamoru. 

Without a word to Mercury, he took off running. A hand immediately grasped his, forcing him to stop and turn. Venus’ expression wore none of the playfulness it normally did. She looked him straight in the eye, the urgency in her gaze matching the one that he felt. “I can get there faster. I’ll take care of it.” Her gloved hand clenched tightly around his bare one.

He hesitated only a moment. She was right. And he had to trust in that. When he nodded, the smile she gave him made the whole world feel warmer. Not the cheeky grin she displayed when she was having fun, but something softer, more honest. “Wait for me,” she said, before bounding away. She lept from pavement to car, from car to support beam, a golden streak moving up the tower as only a senshi could. 

He wanted to watch her progress, but the threat on the ground commanded everyone’s attention. Trapped and threatened, the vines were lashing out ever more violently. The worst part was, destroying one part of a vine did not seem to slow the other parts. A detached segment could still move, still strike out. 

And so, while Saturn easily sliced through a swath of them, a short length of vine, oozing greenish black from its severed ends, managed to clamp around her ankle. And began to squeeze.

The scream that Saturn let out brought everybody to a standstill. She was the youngest of them. She may have been a senshi, but she was still the youngest. 

Saturn dropped to the pavement, her glaive clattering to the ground and vanishing. Ambient energy glowed violet around the vine as it began to absorb Saturn’s power. It could not possibly drain her energy to dangerous levels unless left alone for a number of days, but the energy boost would make it stronger, make its grip more crushing. Jupiter was by her side first. Without a thought, she grabbed at the vine, trying to pry it apart. Immediately the thing lashed out at her, tried to capture her wrist in the same vice grip. 

“Kill it!” Mars’ voice was uncharacteristically shrill. 

“With what?!” Jupiter looked panicked. “I can’t electrocute it without hurting her too!”

Mars clenched her hand around the fire that had been gathering in her palm. She, too, could not attack something so small without burning the ankle that it clung to.

Saturn bit back another scream as her purple boot contorted beneath the vine’s grasp. For all the pain that she must have been in, she was impressively stoic. If those things could snap metal beams, what could they do to bones, even the bones of a senshi?

Mercury gripped her tiny computer, her voice deceptively calm. “If I carefully freeze it, maybe…”

“That could take too long. Let me see it.” Kain brushed past Mercury and knelt beside Jupiter. It was here, he thought, on Tokyo Tower, that he had committed his worst crimes against the city. He could feel that city mocking him now, as he reached for the vine, as Jupiter had done. There was no way he could do this stealthily, he thought. No way they would not see and recognize what he was about to do. He let the vine take hold of his hand, let it squeeze so tight that, had it had more time, it would have soon begun to break fingers.

But hot energy began to seep beneath his skin. That familiar burn, warm and intoxicating like brandy down his throat, rushed up his arm. The violet aura of energy surrounding the vine began to dim and spread up his arm.

“O-oh,” Mercury breathed, “that’s…”

The vine slackened its grip. It was not very big, and did not need much energy to sustain it. Kain did not stop draining it of its life force, even as he began to unwind it from Saturn’s leg. It writhed feebly, abandoned its prey to attack him instead, even attempted to drain some of its energy back from him. But it was only a youma, and not even a very powerful one. It could not hope to match him, not in this.

Saturn met his eyes as the vine fizzled out of existence, and there was nothing fearful about her gaze. She was, he would later note, the only one. 

“Step away from her!” The barked order cut across the parking lot. Sailor Uranus had in her hand a curved sword that glowed white, and a look that said she would not hesitate to use it. Beside her, Neptune carried no weapon, but her eyes glinted with a colder fury.

Kain stood--slowly, his eyes on them--and did as they said.

Uranus advanced on him, her sword never leaving her hand. In a few strides, she had placed herself between Kain and Saturn. “I was told that whatever dealings you had with dark powers were in the past. Was I misinformed?”

“Papa, he was just helping!” Saturn tolerated Neptune’s protective embrace, but her eyes did not leave Uranus.

“That is not how it looked from where I was standing.”

Kain stood very still and tried to ignore the glowing sword. Things would get a lot more complicated if she decided to actually use it. “Would you prefer if I had left her in the youma’s grip?”

Her eyes spoke of tornadoes. “I can think of many more dangerous things than a youma right now.”

“This is ridiculous!” Jupiter was there beside him, her hand warm and reassuring on his arm. “He _was_ helping, and I don’t care how he did it.”

Uranus gestured at him with the sword. “Nobody drains energy from another living creature except people who are thirsty for power.”

“You are assuming a lot,” Jupiter warned through gritted teeth. 

“Did _you_ know about this ability, then?”

Jupiter bristled. “What I _know_ is that he is our friend and was helping.”

“And that he can suck the life force out of people?”

She had not known that, of course, because Kain had made a point of not telling her, but Jupiter pressed on anyway. “ _And_ that he can make ice.”

“No,” Mars’ voice was soft, and her violet eyes did not quite meet his. He wondered when she had worked it out… or if she had always remembered. “He doesn’t _make_ anything, Jupiter. He takes away heat by absorbing it. The cold is a side effect.”

Jupiter took a breath, fumbling for any other defense. “It still doesn’t matter,” she said weakly. 

“Of course it does,” Uranus spat. “Mercury, you were scanning, weren’t you? Can you confirm what we saw?”

Mercury clutched her mini-computer to her chest, her eyes wavering behind her blue goggles. “I don’t…” She looked pleadingly at Jupiter and Kain. Though he had not known her long, it was clear that she did not want to be responsible for implicating anybody. He gave her a short nod--it was not her fault that the facts were what they were.

“He killed the youma,” she said, “by absorbing its energy.”

Uranus smirked triumphantly, and Kain saw what would make her harder to convince than anyone. This was a person who liked to win. “And--what were you people called? The Dark Kingdom? Is it actually gone, or do you hold onto its powers out of convenience?”

He knew it had only been a matter of time before that connection was made. And from there, it would be easy enough to see all four of the Shitennou as dangerous. Any evidence that the Dark Kingdom still lived might as well be proof that none of them could be trusted. “My powers are my own,” he said carefully, “and I am loyal to nobody but my prince.”

Uranus stared incredulously at him. “You’re saying that you could suck the life out of another human being without the Dark Kingdom?”

Kain looked around at all of them. The warriors who looked like they were barely on the cusp of adulthood, whose eyes were ancient and who had fought far too many battles. A lifetime ago, he and they would have been alien to one another, and the laws by which they were all bound would have forbid even a conversation such as this one. Now there were no such laws, but this was nevertheless their unofficial territory. If they did not want any of the Shitennou in the city, they could easily make that happen. 

He could not let the other three take the fall for this. _Make this good,_ he thought. “Where do you think the Dark Kingdom got the idea in the first place?”


End file.
